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Timissa fire, February 2021 Timissa, Sokoura, Lanfiala

Out · last detection 2 Mar 2021, 13:52 UTC

The fire started on 20 February 2021 in Timissa, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,485 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Ségou since 2016 (of 54 with a page). The largest in Mali in 2021, of 58.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.5 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
12,485ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
20 Feb 2021 – 1 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
4
communes
Started on
20 Feb
2021
Heat detections
382
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Mar 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Feb1 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

20212223242526272812

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
42km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,871 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Timissa where it started
    5,717 ha reached on 20 Feb
    4.6 %
  2. Sokoura
    4,227 ha reached on 22 Feb
    4.7 %
  3. Lanfiala
    2,371 ha reached on 21 Feb
    6.6 %
  4. Ouonkoro
    189 ha reached on 25 Feb
    0.2 %

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)
20 Feb 33.4 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Feb 33.6 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Feb 33.6 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Feb 33.5 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Feb 34.5 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Feb 33.9 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
26 Feb 33.4 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Feb 34.1 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Feb 36.4 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Mar 36.8 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
2 Mar after 37.5 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
3 Mar after 37.8 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
4 Mar after 38.8 °C 11 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
5 Mar after 37.7 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
6 Mar after 38.8 °C 9 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Mar after 40.0 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Mar after 39.5 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Mar after 39.0 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Mar after 36.6 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Mar after 34.8 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Feb 2021
After · 8 Mar 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.

Detections table · 382Every 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 Timissa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 February 2021 and 1 March 2021: 10 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 12,485 hectares (124.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Timissa (5,717 ha, 4.6 %); Sokoura (4,227 ha, 4.7 %); Lanfiala (2,371 ha, 6.6 %); Ouonkoro (189 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.