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Timissa fire, December 2022 Timissa

Out · last detection 21 Dec 2022, 01:49 UTC

The fire started on 15 December 2022 in Timissa, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,577 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 18th largest in Ségou since 2016 (of 53 with a page). Number 12 in Mali in 2022, of 67.

Burnt area
3,577ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
15 Dec 2022 – 21 Dec 2022
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
15 Dec
2022
Heat detections
87
in a single hotspot: 43 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
519MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Dec 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Dec21 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
39km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,529 ha in 2020, 2,119 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,617 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Timissa where it started
    3,598 ha reached on 15 Dec
    2.9 %

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)
15 Dec 34.4 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Dec 33.9 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Dec 34.3 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Dec 34.5 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Dec 33.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Dec 32.0 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Dec 27.2 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Dec after 27.9 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Dec after 28.8 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Dec after 28.2 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Dec after 29.2 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Dec after 30.3 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Dec after 31.3 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Dec after 31.3 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Dec after 31.3 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Dec after 30.9 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Dec after 29.8 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Dec 2022
After · 28 Dec 2022

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 · 87Every 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 15 December 2022 and 21 December 2022: 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 3,577 hectares (35.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Timissa (3,598 ha, 2.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % 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.

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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.