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Mahina fire, April 2016 Mahina

Out · last detection 11 Apr 2016, 13:41 UTC

The fire started on 7 April 2016 in Mahina, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,678 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 64th largest in Kayes since 2016 (of 333 with a page). Number 8 in Mali in 2016, of 45.

Burnt area
3,678ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
7 Apr 2016 – 11 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
7 Apr
2016
Heat detections
121
in a single hotspot: 131 MW
Danger at start
62
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Apr11 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

7891011

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
36km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Mahina where it started
    3,699 ha reached on 7 Apr
    1.6 %

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)
7 Apr 41.0 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
8 Apr 38.4 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Apr 40.2 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
10 Apr 40.8 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Apr 41.8 °C 12 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
12 Apr after 44.2 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
13 Apr after 44.8 °C 6 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
14 Apr after 44.4 °C 10 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
15 Apr after 44.0 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
16 Apr after 44.3 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
17 Apr after 44.7 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
18 Apr after 45.2 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
19 Apr after 43.7 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
20 Apr after 45.7 °C 7 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
21 Apr after 45.0 °C 6 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Mar 2016
After · 18 Apr 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 · 121Every 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 Mahina fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 April 2016 and 11 April 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 3,678 hectares (36.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mahina (3,699 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.