Mahabo fire, July 2019 Mahabo, Morondava
The fire started on 28 July 2019 in Mahabo, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,103 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 24th largest in Menabe since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 6 in Madagascar in 2019, of 38.
- Burnt area
- 4,103ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 28 Jul 2019 – 18 Aug 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Jul
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 420
- in a single hotspot: 97 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.1GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,124 ha in 2016, 3,345 ha in 2017, 4,245 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,834 ha that had burned before.
- 6,124 ha Mahabo fire, October 2016 10,941 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,582 ha Mahabo fire, October 2017 4,979 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,515 ha Morondava fire, October 2018 2,104 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 633 ha Mahabo fire, October 2018 2,306 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 95 ha Morondava fire, October 2018 5,771 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mahabo where it started2,359 ha reached on 23 Jul0.2 %
-
1,753 ha reached on 23 Jul0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jul | 29.4 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Jul | 31.7 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 30 Jul | 32.7 °C | 33 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 31 Jul | 33.4 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 1 Aug | 30.8 °C | 43 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 2 Aug | 33.1 °C | 27 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 3 Aug | 32.9 °C | 21 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Aug | 32.5 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 5 Aug | 32.3 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Aug | 33.1 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 7 Aug | 33.3 °C | 13 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 8 Aug | 33.0 °C | 15 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 9 Aug | 32.4 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Aug | 32.8 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Aug | 31.0 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 12 Aug | 32.2 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 13 Aug | 32.8 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Aug | 32.3 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 15 Aug | 33.2 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 16 Aug | 33.0 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Aug | 31.5 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Aug | 32.4 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Aug after | 31.9 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Aug after | 31.5 °C | 32 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 21 Aug after | 32.1 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 22 Aug after | 32.5 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Aug after | 29.7 °C | 48 % | 20 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 24 Aug after | 33.5 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 25 Aug after | 33.3 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 26 Aug after | 32.6 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Aug after | 32.9 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Aug after | 32.4 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 420Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 10,941 haMahabo8 October 2016 · 27 days · 1 km away
- 5,771 haMorondava17 October 2018 · 15 days · 8 km away
- 7,808 haMorondavaAugust 2026 · 11 days · 10 km away
- 6,536 haMahabo22 September 2020 · 40 days · 10 km away
- 6,052 haMahaboSeptember 2016 · 32 days · 23 km away
- 6,286 haBelo Sur Tsiribihina4 October 2017 · 20 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mahabo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 July 2019 and 18 August 2019: 22 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 4,103 hectares (41.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mahabo (2,359 ha, 0.2 %); Morondava (1,753 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Madagascar (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.
Report an error
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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.