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SN · Senegal · →

Bala fire, April 2023 Bala

Out · last detection 22 Apr 2023, 14:51 UTC

The fire started on 17 April 2023 in Bala, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,775 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 135th largest in Tambacounda since 2016 (of 291 with a page). Number 36 in Senegal in 2023, of 83.

Burnt area
2,775ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
17 Apr 2023 – 22 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
17 Apr
2023
Heat detections
143
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Apr 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Apr22 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

45°high
57km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 441 ha in 2016, 1,300 ha in 2021, 145 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,588 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bala where it started
    2,789 ha reached on 16 Apr
    1.0 %

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)
17 Apr 45.0 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Apr 43.3 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Apr 42.7 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
20 Apr 44.0 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
21 Apr 38.7 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
22 Apr 41.3 °C 14 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
23 Apr after 43.4 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Apr after 43.9 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Apr after 43.8 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Apr after 44.8 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
27 Apr after 43.7 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
28 Apr after 45.1 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
29 Apr after 42.4 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
30 Apr after 42.3 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
1 May after 42.0 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 May after 41.9 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Apr 2023
After · 29 Apr 2023

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 · 143Every 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 Senegal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 April 2023 and 22 April 2023: 6 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 2,775 hectares (27.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bala (2,789 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 45.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, class Very extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Senegal (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.

Emergency number: 18

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 18.

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 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.