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Mahina fire, March 2017 Mahina

Out · last detection 17 Mar 2017, 14:05 UTC

The fire started on 15 March 2017 in Mahina, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,714 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 148th largest in Kayes since 2016 (of 337 with a page). Number 16 in Mali in 2017, of 42.

Burnt area
2,714ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
15 Mar 2017 – 17 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
15 Mar
2017
Heat detections
80
in a single hotspot: 128 MW
Danger at start
62
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Mar17 Mar

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
37km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 162 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mahina where it started
    2,729 ha reached on 15 Mar
    1.2 %

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 Mar 40.3 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
16 Mar 42.1 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
17 Mar 42.4 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Mar after 40.4 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Mar after 39.6 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
20 Mar after 39.6 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
21 Mar after 40.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Mar after 41.0 °C 8 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Mar after 40.8 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Mar after 43.2 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
25 Mar after 40.0 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 64
26 Mar after 42.8 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Mar after 44.5 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Mar 2017
After · 24 Mar 2017

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 · 80Every 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 15 March 2017 and 17 March 2017: 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 2,714 hectares (27.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mahina (2,729 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 42.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 37 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.