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Morondava fire, 25 August 2016 Morondava, Mahabo

Out · last detection 2 Sept 2016, 10:08 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2016 in Morondava, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,241 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 22th largest in Menabe since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 11 in Madagascar in 2016, of 59.

Burnt area
4,241ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
25 Aug 2016 – 2 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
25 Aug
2016
Heat detections
181
in a single hotspot: 221 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug2 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2526272829303112

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
44km/h · peak gust
17%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

  1. Morondava where it started
    3,944 ha reached on 22 Aug
    0.7 %
  2. Mahabo
    310 ha reached on 22 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
25 Aug 30.9 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Aug 29.7 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Aug 32.2 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Aug 32.0 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Aug 29.6 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Aug 29.9 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 Aug 31.3 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Sept 29.5 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Sept 30.6 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept after 31.3 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Sept after 30.7 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Sept after 30.0 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Sept after 29.7 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Sept after 30.7 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Sept after 31.4 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Sept after 33.3 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Sept after 33.7 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Sept after 32.6 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Sept after 31.0 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Aug 2016
After · 9 Sept 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 · 181Every 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 Madagascar ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Morondava fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 August 2016 and 2 September 2016: 9 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 4,241 hectares (42.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Morondava (3,944 ha, 0.7 %); Mahabo (310 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 44 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 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

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.