Sido fire, January 2024 Sido
The fire started on 10 January 2024 in Sido, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,465 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 11th largest in Sikasso since 2016 (of 17 with a page). Number 60 in Mali in 2024, of 87.
- Burnt area
- 2,465ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 10 Jan 2024 – 15 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 10 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 73
- in a single hotspot: 43 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 61MW
- detected power per day, on average
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.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 17 ha in 2017, 473 ha in 2019, 395 ha in 2020.
What happened to each town
-
Sido where it started2,479 ha reached on 10 Jan2.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Jan | 36.8 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Jan | 37.6 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 12 Jan | 37.3 °C | 10 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 13 Jan | 36.4 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 14 Jan | 36.4 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 15 Jan | 36.9 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 16 Jan after | 36.5 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 17 Jan after | 36.1 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 18 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 19 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 20 Jan after | 37.4 °C | 12 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 21 Jan after | 37.6 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 22 Jan after | 36.0 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 23 Jan after | 35.8 °C | 8 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 24 Jan after | 35.8 °C | 9 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 25 Jan after | 35.6 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 16 January 2024 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 73Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sido fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 January 2024 and 15 January 2024: 6 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 2,465 hectares (24.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Sido (2,479 ha, 2.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class 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
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.