Morondava fire, June 2023 Morondava, Mahabo
The fire started on 25 June 2023 in Morondava, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,165 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 77th largest in Menabe since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 27 in Madagascar in 2023, of 32.
The power measured by the satellite is low (29.6 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
- 2,165ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 25 Jun 2023 – 4 Jul 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 25 Jun
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 109
- in a single hotspot: 30 MW
- Energy released
- 797MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,362 ha in 2016, 311 ha in 2017, 1,486 ha in 2018, 637 ha in 2019, 1,732 ha in 2020, 3,110 ha in 2021, 1,380 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,176 ha that had burned before.
- 1,507 ha Morondava fire, June 2021 2,395 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,491 ha Morondava fire, October 2021 2,354 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,362 ha Mahabo fire, October 2016 10,941 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,071 ha Morondava fire, October 2018 5,771 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 584 ha Mahabo fire, July 2019 4,103 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 485 ha Mahabo fire, September 2020 6,536 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 330 ha Morondava fire, October 2018 2,104 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 112 ha Mahabo fire, June 2021 2,489 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Morondava where it started2,119 ha reached on 20 Jun0.4 %
-
51 ha reached on 22 Jun0.0 %
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.
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.
Detections table · 109Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,771 haMorondava17 October 2018 · 15 days · 3 km away
- 10,941 haMahabo8 October 2016 · 27 days · 6 km away
- 6,536 haMahabo22 September 2020 · 40 days · 6 km away
- 7,808 haMorondavaAugust 2026 · 11 days · 11 km away
- 6,286 haBelo Sur Tsiribihina4 October 2017 · 20 days · 23 km away
- 6,052 haMahaboSeptember 2016 · 32 days · 27 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Morondava fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 June 2023 and 4 July 2023: 10 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 2,165 hectares (21.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Morondava (2,119 ha, 0.4 %); Mahabo (51 ha, 0.0 %).
- 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.
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.