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Sadiola fire, 13 October 2026 Sadiola

Out · last detection 19 Oct 2026, 14:37 UTC

The fire started on 13 October 2026 in Sadiola, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,026 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 324th largest in Kayes since 2016 (of 333 with a page). Number 114 in Mali in 2026, of 116.

The power measured by the satellite is low (12.1 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
2,026ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
13 Oct 2026 – 19 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
13 Oct
2026
Heat detections
22
in a single hotspot: 12 MW
Danger at start
9
Low · FWI index
Energy released
114MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Oct 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Oct19 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

131415161719

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
31km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.5 mm on 18 Oct.

This area had burned before

21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 35 ha in 2016, 384 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Sadiola where it started
    2,040 ha reached on 13 Oct
    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)
13 Oct 34.5 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
14 Oct 35.0 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
15 Oct 35.4 °C 30 % 17 km/h 0.1 mm Low 11
16 Oct 36.4 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
17 Oct 37.2 °C 28 % 27 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 14
18 Oct 37.3 °C 32 % 31 km/h 4.5 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Oct 2026
After · 23 Oct 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 13 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 74 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 3.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak74 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM10173 µg/m³
Optical depth0.54
11121314151617
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 22Every 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 Sadiola fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 October 2026 to 19 October 2026 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 October 2026 to 17 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,026 hectares (20.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Sadiola (2,040 ha, 0.4 %).
Is the Sadiola fire still active?
No fire detections since 19 Oct 2026, 14:37 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
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.