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Ménaka fire, May 2020 Ménaka

Out · last detection 7 May 2020, 13:58 UTC

The fire started on 7 May 2020 in Ménaka, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,342 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 49th largest in Gao since 2016 (of 135 with a page). Number 13 in Mali in 2020, of 61.

Burnt area
3,342ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
1day
7 May 2020 – 7 May 2020
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
7 May
2020
Heat detections
70
in a single hotspot: 42 MW
Danger at start
76
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 May7 May

How it evolved, day by day

7

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

The weather it burned in

43°high
35km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,169 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Ménaka where it started
    2,654 ha reached on 7 May
    0.2 %

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)
7 May 42.7 °C 4 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
8 May after 42.5 °C 3 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
9 May after 43.0 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
10 May after 43.8 °C 9 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
11 May after 41.2 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
12 May after 41.4 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
13 May after 38.5 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
14 May after 43.3 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 May after 44.0 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
16 May after 44.2 °C 14 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
17 May after 38.5 °C 24 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Apr 2020
After · 14 May 2020

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 · 70Every 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 Ménaka fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 May 2020 and 7 May 2020: 1 day 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 3,342 hectares (33.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ménaka (2,654 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 42.7 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 76, class Very 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.