Toliary-II fire, August 2025 Toliary-II
The fire started on 27 August 2025 in Toliary-II, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,703 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 26th largest in Atsimo-Andrefana since 2016 (of 45 with a page). Number 26 in Madagascar in 2025, of 95.
- Burnt area
- 3,703ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 27 Aug 2025 – 7 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 146
- in a single hotspot: 72 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,263 ha in 2016, 4,608 ha in 2017, 3,165 ha in 2018, 5,486 ha in 2019, 4,764 ha in 2020, 2,413 ha in 2021, 1,476 ha in 2022, 3,345 ha in 2023, 3,236 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,721 ha that had burned before.
- 4,764 ha Toliary-II fire, September 2020 20,892 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,743 ha Toliary-II fire, October 2019 14,445 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,608 ha Toliary-II fire, October 2017 23,015 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,345 ha Toliary-II fire, September 2023 12,385 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,165 ha Toliary-II fire, September 2018 13,011 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,413 ha Toliary-II fire, October 2021 14,910 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,619 ha Toliary-II fire, September 2024 2,527 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,108 ha Toliary-II fire, October 2016 7,724 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Toliary-II where it started3,715 ha reached on 27 Aug0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Aug | 30.8 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 28 Aug | 32.9 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 29 Aug | 32.0 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Aug | 32.6 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 31 Aug | 31.7 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Sept | 32.7 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 2 Sept | 33.9 °C | 14 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Sept | 32.0 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 4 Sept | 28.2 °C | 38 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Sept | 28.9 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 6 Sept | 33.2 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Sept | 33.7 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 8 Sept after | 33.2 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 10 Sept after | 34.3 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 11 Sept after | 33.0 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 12 Sept after | 31.5 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 13 Sept after | 32.1 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 14 Sept after | 32.3 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Sept after | 30.5 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Sept after | 31.9 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 17 Sept after | 32.1 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 4 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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 · 146Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 20,892 haToliary-IISeptember 2020 · 46 days · 2 km away
- 14,910 haToliary-II21 October 2021 · 20 days · 2 km away
- 14,445 haToliary-II14 October 2019 · 31 days · 2 km away
- 13,011 haToliary-IISeptember 2018 · 14 days · 3 km away
- 23,015 haToliary-II10 October 2017 · 30 days · 4 km away
- 12,385 haToliary-IISeptember 2023 · 16 days · 4 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Toliary-II fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 August 2025 and 7 September 2025: 12 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 3,703 hectares (37.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Toliary-II (3,715 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Madagascar (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.
Report an error
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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.