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Tomora fire, December 2022 Tomora, Diakon, Sidibéla

Out · last detection 14 Dec 2022, 02:20 UTC

The fire started on 10 December 2022 in Tomora, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,164 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 97th largest in Kayes since 2016 (of 333 with a page). Number 17 in Mali in 2022, of 67.

Burnt area
3,164ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
10 Dec 2022 – 14 Dec 2022
Municipalities hit
3
communes
Started on
10 Dec
2022
Heat detections
83
in a single hotspot: 38 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
821MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Dec 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Dec14 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1011121314

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
38km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 48 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

46% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 84 ha in 2018, 922 ha in 2020, 517 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,441 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Tomora where it started
    2,087 ha reached on 10 Dec
    1.1 %
  2. Diakon
    1,095 ha reached on 10 Dec
    0.6 %
  3. Sidibéla
    3 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)
10 Dec 37.5 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Dec 36.6 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Dec 35.5 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Dec 35.4 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Dec 35.6 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Dec after 35.9 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Dec after 36.4 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Dec after 36.0 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Dec after 36.4 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Dec after 35.8 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 Dec after 34.8 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Dec after 33.1 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Dec after 30.7 °C 17 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Dec after 31.9 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
24 Dec after 32.2 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Dec 2022
After · 21 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 · 83Every 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 Tomora fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 December 2022 and 14 December 2022: 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 3,164 hectares (31.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tomora (2,087 ha, 1.1 %); Diakon (1,095 ha, 0.6 %); Sidibéla (3 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.