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Lakamané fire, December 2016 Lakamané

Out · last detection 7 Dec 2016, 13:41 UTC

The fire started on 3 December 2016 in Lakamané, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,979 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 120th largest in Kayes since 2016 (of 333 with a page). Number 22 in Mali in 2016, of 45.

The power measured by the satellite is low (9.2 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
2,979ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
3 Dec 2016 – 7 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
3 Dec
2016
Heat detections
89
in a single hotspot: 9 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
255MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Dec7 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

34567

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
37km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 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. Lakamané where it started
    2,995 ha reached on 3 Dec
    2.0 %

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)
3 Dec 38.3 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Dec 37.9 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Dec 37.6 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Dec 37.0 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Dec 36.2 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Dec after 36.1 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Dec after 33.8 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Dec after 32.2 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Dec after 32.2 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Dec after 32.9 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
13 Dec after 33.7 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Dec after 30.5 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Dec after 29.1 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Dec after 30.0 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Dec after 29.0 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Nov 2016
After · 14 Dec 2016

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 · 89Every 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 Lakamané fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 December 2016 and 7 December 2016: 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 2,979 hectares (29.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lakamané (2,995 ha, 2.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.