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Timissa fire, 15 December 2024 Timissa, Ségué

Out · last detection 19 Dec 2024, 02:19 UTC

The fire started on 15 December 2024 in Timissa, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,149 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 26th largest in Ségou since 2016 (of 53 with a page). Number 29 in Mali in 2024, of 87.

The power measured by the satellite is low (10.6 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
3,149ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
15 Dec 2024 – 19 Dec 2024
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
15 Dec
2024
Heat detections
81
in a single hotspot: 11 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
276MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Dec 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Dec19 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819

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
43km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 52 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,126 ha in 2020, 2,053 ha in 2021, 1,116 ha in 2022, 519 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,607 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Timissa where it started
    3,159 ha reached on 15 Dec
    2.5 %
  2. Ségué
    8 ha
    0.0 %

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 33.8 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Dec 32.4 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Dec 31.5 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Dec 30.2 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Dec 27.7 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Dec after 27.8 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Dec after 28.2 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Dec after 29.8 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Dec after 30.5 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Dec after 31.9 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Dec after 31.5 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Dec after 32.2 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Dec after 31.9 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Dec after 32.2 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Dec after 32.5 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Dec 2024
After · 26 Dec 2024

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 19 December 2024 the air beside the fire reached 159 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 105: 7.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak159 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10799 µg/m³
Optical depth0.53
13141516171819202122
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 · 81Every 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 2024 and 19 December 2024: 5 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 3,149 hectares (31.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Timissa (3,159 ha, 2.5 %); Ségué (8 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.