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Koundian fire, November 2017 Koundian

Out · last detection 16 Nov 2017, 14:30 UTC

The fire started on 11 November 2017 in Koundian, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,048 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 110th largest in Kayes since 2016 (of 337 with a page). Number 12 in Mali in 2017, of 42.

Burnt area
3,048ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
11 Nov 2017 – 15 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
11 Nov
2017
Heat detections
77
in a single hotspot: 35 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
466MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Nov15 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

111213141516

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

37°high
40km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Koundian where it started
    3,066 ha reached on 8 Nov
    1.4 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
11 Nov 36.8 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Nov 35.5 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Nov 33.8 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Nov 34.0 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Nov 34.2 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Nov after 34.9 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Nov after 32.7 °C 20 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Nov after 33.8 °C 18 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Nov after 33.5 °C 20 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Nov after 35.0 °C 24 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Nov after 34.8 °C 23 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Nov after 35.0 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Nov after 34.9 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Nov after 35.9 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Nov after 34.8 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 4 Nov 2017
After · 22 Nov 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 77Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mali ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Koundian fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 November 2017 and 15 November 2017: 5 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,048 hectares (30.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Koundian (3,066 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mali (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.