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Mamdi fire, May 2016 Mamdi

Out · last detection 8 Jun 2016, 12:12 UTC

The fire started on 29 May 2016 in Mamdi, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,827 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 21th largest in Lac since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 102 in Chad in 2016, of 220.

Burnt area
2,827ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
29 May 2016 – 8 Jun 2016
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
29 May
2016
Heat detections
100
in a single hotspot: 68 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
961MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Jun 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 May8 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

2930311234678

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
50km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone one day 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. Mamdi where it started
    2,842 ha reached on 22 May
    0.6 %

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)
29 May 38.5 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 May 37.9 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
31 May 35.5 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 42
1 Jun 38.0 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
2 Jun 40.2 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Jun 39.9 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
4 Jun 39.6 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
5 Jun 39.8 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
6 Jun 38.9 °C 35 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
7 Jun 38.5 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 48
8 Jun 38.8 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Jun after 38.1 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 53
10 Jun after 38.8 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 50
11 Jun after 38.7 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 54
12 Jun after 39.0 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Jun after 37.5 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Jun after 36.2 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 47
15 Jun after 36.4 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 47
16 Jun after 32.6 °C 51 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
17 Jun after 35.2 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Jun after 38.0 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 May 2016
After · 15 Jun 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 · 100Every 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 Chad ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mamdi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 May 2016 and 8 June 2016: 11 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 2,827 hectares (28.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mamdi (2,842 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.2 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chad (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 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.