How long did the Manja fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 October 2016 and 28 October 2016: 28 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 3,093 hectares (30.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Manja (3,107 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.

MG · Madagascar · 2016-10-01 → 2016-10-28

Manja fire, October 2016 Manja

Out · last detection 29 Oct 2016, 10:39 UTC

The fire started on 1 October 2016 in Manja, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,093 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 35th largest in Menabe since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 23 in Madagascar in 2016, of 59.

Burnt area: 3,093ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 28days; 1 Oct 2016 – 28 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 1 Oct; 2016
Heat detections: 314; in a single hotspot: 283 MW
Danger at start: 22; High · FWI index
Energy released: 3.7GW; sum of detected power

Play back 29 Oct 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Oct28 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

12457891011121314151617181920212223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

45km/h · peak gust

26%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

Manja where it started

3,107 ha reached on 1 Oct

0.3 %

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)
1 Oct	31.0 °C	52 %	38 km/h	0.8 mm	High 22
2 Oct	30.8 °C	52 %	41 km/h	0.5 mm	High 27
3 Oct	27.9 °C	63 %	45 km/h	2.6 mm	Low 9
4 Oct	27.5 °C	44 %	42 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 21
5 Oct	26.4 °C	46 %	44 km/h	0.1 mm	High 24
6 Oct	26.3 °C	45 %	37 km/h	0.5 mm	High 24
7 Oct	29.0 °C	36 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
8 Oct	31.8 °C	31 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
9 Oct	30.5 °C	49 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
10 Oct	31.6 °C	42 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
11 Oct	34.7 °C	28 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
12 Oct	33.3 °C	41 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
13 Oct	32.9 °C	48 %	36 km/h	0.3 mm	High 29
14 Oct	33.7 °C	31 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
15 Oct	32.0 °C	41 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
16 Oct	30.9 °C	49 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
17 Oct	31.3 °C	54 %	39 km/h	0.5 mm	High 27
18 Oct	33.2 °C	38 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
19 Oct	33.3 °C	44 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
20 Oct	32.2 °C	48 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
21 Oct	31.0 °C	52 %	41 km/h	0.2 mm	High 30
22 Oct	31.1 °C	48 %	39 km/h	0.8 mm	High 23
23 Oct	32.7 °C	49 %	35 km/h	1.0 mm	Moderate 20
24 Oct	32.6 °C	44 %	31 km/h	0.6 mm	High 23
25 Oct	32.6 °C	47 %	37 km/h	1.8 mm	Moderate 17
26 Oct	33.3 °C	40 %	36 km/h	0.3 mm	High 29
27 Oct	34.5 °C	30 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
28 Oct	33.7 °C	26 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
29 Oct after	32.7 °C	29 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
30 Oct after	32.9 °C	23 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
31 Oct after	34.1 °C	20 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
1 Nov after	32.9 °C	29 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
2 Nov after	32.7 °C	40 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
3 Nov after	32.1 °C	44 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
4 Nov after	32.2 °C	46 %	38 km/h	0.8 mm	High 24
5 Nov after	32.8 °C	44 %	33 km/h	0.9 mm	High 23
6 Nov after	32.2 °C	45 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
7 Nov after	34.1 °C	33 %	37 km/h	0.2 mm	High 37

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 24 Sept 2016

After · 4 Nov 2016

Before After

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 · 314Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Madagascar ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Manja fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 October 2016 and 28 October 2016: 28 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 3,093 hectares (30.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Manja (3,107 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned