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Ségué fire, December 2023 Diallassagou, Ségué, Tori

Out · last detection 22 Dec 2023, 13:34 UTC

The fire started on 14 December 2023 in Ségué, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,960 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 21th largest in Mopti since 2016 (of 160 with a page). Number 5 in Mali in 2023, of 56.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.3 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
4,960ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
14 Dec 2023 – 21 Dec 2023
Municipalities hit
3
communes
Started on
14 Dec
2023
Heat detections
133
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
519MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Dec 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Dec21 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1415171819202122

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
35km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days 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. Diallassagou
    3,619 ha reached on 14 Dec
    11 %
  2. Ségué where it started
    1,269 ha reached on 14 Dec
    1.1 %
  3. Tori
    102 ha reached on 14 Dec
    0.3 %

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)
14 Dec 30.8 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Dec 31.0 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Dec 31.5 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Dec 30.5 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Dec 27.9 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Dec 27.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Dec 27.4 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Dec 27.3 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Dec after 30.5 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Dec after 33.1 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Dec after 32.0 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Dec after 32.0 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Dec after 31.8 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Dec after 31.9 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Dec after 31.1 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Dec after 31.5 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Dec after 32.4 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Dec after 33.1 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Dec 2023
After · 28 Dec 2023

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 · 133Every 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 Ségué fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 December 2023 and 21 December 2023: 8 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 4,960 hectares (49.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Diallassagou (3,619 ha, 11 %); Ségué (1,269 ha, 1.1 %); Tori (102 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very high.
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.