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Tessit fire, 19 October 2025 Tessit, N'tillit

Out · last detection 26 Oct 2025, 01:51 UTC

The fire started on 19 October 2025 in Tessit, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 41,288 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Gao since 2016 (of 135 with a page). The largest in Mali in 2025, of 282.

Burnt area
41,288ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
19 Oct 2025 – 25 Oct 2025
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
19 Oct
2025
Heat detections
883
in a single hotspot: 193 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
10.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Oct 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Oct25 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
33km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

17% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 107 ha in 2023, 7,120 ha in 2024.

What happened to each town

  1. Tessit where it started
    36,987 ha reached on 16 Oct
    7.6 %
  2. N'tillit
    4,551 ha reached on 22 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)
16 Oct 38.7 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Oct 38.8 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Oct 39.5 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
19 Oct 40.5 °C 9 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Oct 40.1 °C 5 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
21 Oct 39.8 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
22 Oct 40.3 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Oct 41.1 °C 7 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
24 Oct 40.6 °C 7 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Oct 41.2 °C 4 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
26 Oct after 40.0 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
27 Oct after 40.1 °C 5 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Oct after 40.1 °C 5 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Oct after 39.7 °C 7 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
30 Oct after 39.6 °C 6 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
31 Oct after 39.5 °C 8 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
1 Nov after 39.6 °C 4 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
2 Nov after 39.0 °C 6 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
3 Nov after 38.2 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
4 Nov after 37.7 °C 8 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Oct 2025
After · 1 Nov 2025

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 22 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 91 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak91 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM10148 µg/m³
Optical depth0.59
171819202122232425262728
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 · 883Every 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 Tessit fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 October 2025 and 25 October 2025: 7 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 41,288 hectares (412.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tessit (36,987 ha, 7.6 %); N'tillit (4,551 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.2 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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.