Mamdi fire, July 2026 Mamdi
The fire started on 21 July 2026 in Mamdi, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,109 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 10th largest in Lac since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 28 in Chad in 2026, of 172.
- Burnt area
- 5,109ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 25days
- 21 Jul 2026 – 14 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- departments
- Started on
- 21 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 112
- in a single hotspot: 45 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 948MW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,855 ha in 2016, 1,726 ha in 2017, 55 ha in 2018, 7,279 ha in 2019, 473 ha in 2021, 3,124 ha in 2022, 773 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,864 ha that had burned before.
- 3,539 ha Mamdi fire, July 2019 14,480 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,195 ha Mamdi fire, June 2019 3,384 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,704 ha Mamdi fire, May 2016 2,827 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 338 ha Mamdi fire, June 2016 2,002 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 69 ha Darak fire, May 2022 5,640 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mamdi where it started5,136 ha reached on 19 Jul1.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jul | 39.6 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 1.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Jul | 38.7 °C | 32 % | 48 km/h | 2.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Jul | 35.5 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Jul | 37.1 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.8 mm | Very high 38 |
| 25 Jul | 39.7 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 26 Jul | 40.7 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Jul | 39.4 °C | 31 % | 43 km/h | 0.3 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 28 Jul | 31.9 °C | 51 % | 44 km/h | 3.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 29 Jul | 32.3 °C | 57 % | 33 km/h | 23.8 mm | Very low 3 |
| 30 Jul | 33.0 °C | 55 % | 31 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 11 |
| 31 Jul | 31.5 °C | 54 % | 28 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 1 Aug | 34.4 °C | 46 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 2 Aug | 36.3 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Aug | 36.6 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 31 |
| 4 Aug | 38.3 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 5 Aug | 37.8 °C | 30 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 6 Aug | 38.3 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Aug | 36.9 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 2.0 mm | High 24 |
| 8 Aug | 38.5 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Aug | 35.5 °C | 40 % | 38 km/h | 2.5 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 10 Aug | 38.9 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 1.9 mm | High 26 |
| 11 Aug | 38.7 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Aug | 32.2 °C | 51 % | 28 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 27 |
| 13 Aug | 37.8 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Aug | 38.7 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 29 |
| 15 Aug after | 32.7 °C | 49 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 16 Aug after | 35.8 °C | 39 % | 27 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 29 |
| 17 Aug after | 35.4 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 18 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 44 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 19 Aug after | 35.2 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Aug after | 35.5 °C | 43 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 21 Aug after | 38.5 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Aug after | 37.4 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Aug after | 38.8 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Aug after | 35.0 °C | 44 % | 34 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 40 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 13 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 36 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 112Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mamdi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 July 2026 and 14 August 2026: 25 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 5,109 hectares (51.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mamdi (5,136 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.7 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.
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.