How long did the Sakaraha fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 October 2016 and 30 October 2016: 22 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 9,734 hectares (97.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sakaraha (9,780 ha, 1.1 %); Toliary-II (2 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.

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.

MG · Madagascar · 2016-10-09 → 2016-10-30

Sakaraha fire, October 2016 Sakaraha, Toliary-II

Out · last detection 31 Oct 2016, 11:41 UTC

The fire started on 9 October 2016 in Sakaraha, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,734 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Atsimo-Andrefana since 2016 (of 45 with a page). Number 4 in Madagascar in 2016, of 59.

Burnt area: 9,734ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 22days; 9 Oct 2016 – 30 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 9 Oct; 2016
Heat detections: 850; in a single hotspot: 307 MW
Danger at start: 28; High · FWI index
Energy released: 6.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 31 Oct 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Oct30 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

91011121314151617181920212324262728293031

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

46km/h · peak gust

20%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 13 Nov.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Sakaraha where it started

9,780 ha reached on 9 Oct

1.1 %
Toliary-II

2 ha reached on 11 Oct

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)
9 Oct	35.0 °C	26 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
10 Oct	33.1 °C	32 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
11 Oct	33.1 °C	31 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
12 Oct	33.9 °C	33 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
13 Oct	33.5 °C	37 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
14 Oct	30.7 °C	40 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
15 Oct	32.7 °C	33 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
16 Oct	34.5 °C	28 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
17 Oct	32.9 °C	36 %	39 km/h	0.2 mm	High 29
18 Oct	33.0 °C	31 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
19 Oct	33.5 °C	37 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
20 Oct	34.7 °C	32 %	40 km/h	0.3 mm	High 31
21 Oct	33.4 °C	37 %	45 km/h	0.3 mm	High 35
22 Oct	32.0 °C	38 %	35 km/h	1.2 mm	Moderate 21
23 Oct	34.1 °C	36 %	34 km/h	1.6 mm	Moderate 19
24 Oct	32.9 °C	36 %	28 km/h	0.1 mm	High 25
25 Oct	34.0 °C	37 %	32 km/h	4.7 mm	Low 8
26 Oct	31.8 °C	41 %	31 km/h	1.9 mm	Low 11
27 Oct	33.0 °C	31 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
28 Oct	33.3 °C	27 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
29 Oct	32.0 °C	28 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
30 Oct	34.3 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
31 Oct after	35.2 °C	20 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
1 Nov after	34.1 °C	26 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
2 Nov after	34.5 °C	36 %	41 km/h	0.3 mm	High 34
3 Nov after	33.1 °C	40 %	33 km/h	0.1 mm	High 31
4 Nov after	34.9 °C	33 %	40 km/h	1.0 mm	High 28
5 Nov after	34.7 °C	36 %	34 km/h	3.6 mm	Moderate 12
6 Nov after	35.6 °C	30 %	38 km/h	0.3 mm	High 27
7 Nov after	34.2 °C	29 %	35 km/h	0.4 mm	High 30
8 Nov after	36.3 °C	24 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
9 Nov after	36.4 °C	25 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
10 Nov after	35.5 °C	32 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
11 Nov after	36.3 °C	27 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
12 Nov after	36.0 °C	33 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
13 Nov after	36.6 °C	31 %	41 km/h	1.2 mm	High 30

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 2 Oct 2016

After · 6 Nov 2016

Before After

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 · 850Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Madagascar ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sakaraha fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 October 2016 and 30 October 2016: 22 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 9,734 hectares (97.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sakaraha (9,780 ha, 1.1 %); Toliary-II (2 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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.

Where it burned