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Timissa fire, 14 February 2026 Timissa, Lanfiala

Out · last detection 20 Feb 2026, 13:08 UTC

The fire started on 14 February 2026 in Timissa, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,609 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Ségou since 2016 (of 53 with a page). Number 5 in Mali in 2026, of 116.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.5 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
8,609ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
14 Feb 2026 – 20 Feb 2026
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
14 Feb
2026
Heat detections
200
in a single hotspot: 24 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
978MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Feb 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Feb20 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
44km/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

88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,103 ha in 2020, 923 ha in 2021, 1,393 ha in 2022, 2,793 ha in 2023, 6,824 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,552 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Timissa where it started
    7,049 ha reached on 15 Feb
    5.6 %
  2. Lanfiala
    1,608 ha reached on 15 Feb
    4.5 %

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)
14 Feb 38.0 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Feb 36.0 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
16 Feb 32.8 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
17 Feb 31.7 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
18 Feb 33.1 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Feb 34.5 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
20 Feb 34.8 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
21 Feb after 34.6 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
22 Feb after 35.1 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
23 Feb after 35.9 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Feb after 35.2 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
25 Feb after 34.9 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
26 Feb after 35.2 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
27 Feb after 36.3 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Feb after 35.4 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
1 Mar after 33.2 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Mar after 31.6 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Feb 2026
After · 27 Feb 2026

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 16 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 136 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 97: 6.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak136 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM10760 µg/m³
Optical depth0.55
121314151617181920212223
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 · 200Every 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 14 February 2026 and 20 February 2026: 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 8,609 hectares (86.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Timissa (7,049 ha, 5.6 %); Lanfiala (1,608 ha, 4.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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.