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Koussané fire, November 2020 Koussané

Out · last detection 13 Nov 2020, 14:37 UTC

The fire started on 11 November 2020 in Koussané, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,789 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 43th largest in Kayes since 2016 (of 333 with a page). Number 5 in Mali in 2020, of 61.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
4,789ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
11 Nov 2020 – 13 Nov 2020
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
11 Nov
2020
Heat detections
150
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Nov 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Nov13 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

1213

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
51km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,420 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Koussané where it started
    4,817 ha reached on 12 Nov
    1.5 %

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 38.7 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
12 Nov 37.9 °C 13 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
13 Nov 37.8 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Nov after 37.8 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Nov after 38.0 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Nov after 38.6 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
17 Nov after 37.8 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Nov after 37.7 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Nov after 38.2 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Nov after 38.5 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Nov after 38.8 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
22 Nov after 38.8 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Nov after 38.5 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Nov 2020
After · 20 Nov 2020

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 · 150Every 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 Koussané fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 November 2020 and 13 November 2020: 3 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 4,789 hectares (47.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Koussané (4,817 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
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.