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Koussané fire, April 2024 Koussané, Karakoro

Out · last detection 17 Apr 2024, 13:41 UTC

The fire started on 15 April 2024 in Koussané, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,116 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 102th largest in Kayes since 2016 (of 337 with a page). Number 30 in Mali in 2024, of 87.

Burnt area
3,116ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
15 Apr 2024 – 17 Apr 2024
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
15 Apr
2024
Heat detections
94
in a single hotspot: 68 MW
Danger at start
83
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Apr 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Apr17 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

151617

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
52km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,284 ha in 2020, 1,272 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,969 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Koussané where it started
    3,123 ha reached on 15 Apr
    1.0 %
  2. Karakoro
    11 ha
    0.0 %

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)
15 Apr 39.0 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
16 Apr 39.4 °C 11 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
17 Apr 41.7 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
18 Apr after 42.6 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Apr after 44.3 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
20 Apr after 43.9 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Apr after 43.0 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
22 Apr after 39.3 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
23 Apr after 41.2 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Apr after 44.2 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
25 Apr after 46.2 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
26 Apr after 45.1 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
27 Apr after 44.2 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Apr 2024
After · 24 Apr 2024

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

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 13 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 99 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 65: 4.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak99 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM10482 µg/m³
Optical depth0.96
1314151617181920
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 94Every 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 15 April 2024 and 17 April 2024: 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 3,116 hectares (31.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Koussané (3,123 ha, 1.0 %); Karakoro (11 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 83, class Very 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.