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Méguétan fire, January 2016 Méguétan

Out · last detection 25 Jan 2016, 01:37 UTC

The fire started on 22 January 2016 in Méguétan, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,912 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 48th largest in Koulikouro since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 23 in Mali in 2016, of 45.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,912ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
22 Jan 2016 – 25 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
22 Jan
2016
Heat detections
81
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
490MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jan25 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

22232425

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
43km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days 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. Méguétan where it started
    2,929 ha reached on 22 Jan
    2.4 %

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)
22 Jan 29.5 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Jan 31.5 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Jan 34.1 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Jan 32.8 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Jan after 32.0 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Jan after 30.1 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Jan after 31.9 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Jan after 31.0 °C 11 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
30 Jan after 30.9 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Jan after 30.5 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Feb after 31.1 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Feb after 29.0 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Feb after 30.8 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Feb after 33.0 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jan 2016
After · 1 Feb 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 · 81Every 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 Méguétan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 January 2016 and 25 January 2016: 4 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 2,912 hectares (29.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Méguétan (2,929 ha, 2.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.