Skip to content
worldfires
ML · Mali · →

Pondori fire, April 2019 Pondori, Djenne Commune, Nema Badenyakafo

Out · last detection 7 May 2019, 13:21 UTC

The fire started on 30 April 2019 in Pondori, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,822 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Mopti since 2016 (of 160 with a page). Number 4 in Mali in 2019, of 37.

Burnt area
5,822ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
30 Apr 2019 – 6 May 2019
Municipalities hit
3
communes
Started on
30 Apr
2019
Heat detections
198
in a single hotspot: 60 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Apr6 May

How it evolved, day by day

30234567

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

The weather it burned in

45°high
43km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.1 mm on 15 May.

This area had burned before

14% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 818 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Pondori where it started
    4,864 ha reached on 26 Apr
    23 %
  2. Djenne Commune
    574 ha reached on 30 Apr
    2.1 %
  3. Nema Badenyakafo
    420 ha reached on 27 Apr
    0.4 %

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)
30 Apr 41.4 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 May 41.2 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
2 May 41.2 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 May 42.7 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
4 May 34.8 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 42
5 May 42.1 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
6 May 45.0 °C 6 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
7 May after 44.2 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
8 May after 42.5 °C 7 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
9 May after 43.1 °C 5 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
10 May after 43.4 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
11 May after 43.0 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
12 May after 41.4 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 55
13 May after 41.8 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
14 May after 39.9 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
15 May after 37.3 °C 36 % 41 km/h 7.1 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Apr 2019
After · 13 May 2019

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 · 198Every 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 Pondori fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 April 2019 and 6 May 2019: 7 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 5,822 hectares (58.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Pondori (4,864 ha, 23 %); Djenne Commune (574 ha, 2.1 %); Nema Badenyakafo (420 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 45.0 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.