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Soboundou fire, December 2020 Soboundou

Out · last measured on 31 Dec 2020

The fire started on 29 December 2020 in Soboundou, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,495 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 17th largest in Tombouctou since 2016 (of 45 with a page). Number 10 in Mali in 2020, of 61.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
3,495ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
29 Dec 2020 – 31 Dec 2020
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
29 Dec
2020
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

34°high
32km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Soboundou where it started
    3,516 ha
    2.1 %

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)
29 Dec 31.9 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Dec 33.5 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Dec 33.8 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Jan after 32.9 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Jan after 31.8 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Jan after 32.0 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Jan after 32.3 °C 12 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Jan after 31.2 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
6 Jan after 32.0 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
7 Jan after 36.1 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
8 Jan after 37.5 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
9 Jan after 37.4 °C 6 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Jan after 33.3 °C 14 % 34 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.

Before · 22 Dec 2020
After · 7 Jan 2021

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

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mali ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Soboundou fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 December 2020 and 31 December 2020: 3 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 3,495 hectares (35.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Soboundou (3,516 ha, 2.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.

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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.