Toliary-II fire, August 2026 Toliary-II
The fire started on 30 August 2026 in Toliary-II, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,225 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 29th largest in Atsimo-Andrefana since 2016 (of 45 with a page). Number 29 in Madagascar in 2026, of 94.
- Burnt area
- 3,225ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 30 Aug 2026 – 5 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 30 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 47
- in a single hotspot: 45 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 566MW
- 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 9 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: 1,158 ha in 2016, 3,535 ha in 2017, 3,119 ha in 2018, 4,324 ha in 2019, 4,636 ha in 2020, 2,542 ha in 2021, 1,620 ha in 2022, 3,098 ha in 2023, 3,018 ha in 2024, 3,672 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,240 ha that had burned before.
- 4,636 ha Toliary-II fire, September 2020 20,892 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,535 ha Toliary-II fire, October 2017 23,015 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,303 ha Toliary-II fire, October 2019 14,445 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,119 ha Toliary-II fire, September 2018 13,011 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,098 ha Toliary-II fire, September 2023 12,385 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,542 ha Toliary-II fire, October 2021 14,910 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,965 ha Toliary-II fire, August 2025 3,703 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,543 ha Toliary-II fire, October 2025 6,369 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Toliary-II where it started3,235 ha reached on 30 Aug0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Aug | 29.4 °C | 27 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Aug | 28.2 °C | 24 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 30 Aug | 29.7 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 31 Aug | 29.6 °C | 28 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 1 Sept | 29.4 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 2 Sept | 31.0 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 Sept | 30.3 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Sept | 30.3 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 5 Sept | 28.9 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 6 Sept after | 28.6 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Sept after | 26.7 °C | 43 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 8 Sept after | 29.9 °C | 31 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 9 Sept after | 30.1 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 10 Sept after | 29.4 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 34 |
| 11 Sept after | 28.8 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Sept after | 28.2 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Sept after | 30.4 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 14 Sept after | 32.6 °C | 22 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Sept after | 31.6 °C | 28 % | 47 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.
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 2026 the air beside the fire reached 17 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 · 47Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,011 haToliary-IISeptember 2018 · 14 days · 1 km away
- 14,910 haToliary-II21 October 2021 · 20 days · 2 km away
- 20,892 haToliary-IISeptember 2020 · 46 days · 4 km away
- 14,445 haToliary-II14 October 2019 · 31 days · 4 km away
- 12,385 haToliary-IISeptember 2023 · 16 days · 4 km away
- 23,015 haToliary-II10 October 2017 · 30 days · 6 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Toliary-II fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 August 2026 and 5 September 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 3,225 hectares (32.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Toliary-II (3,235 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
- 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.