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Bala fire, March 2026 Bala, Dianké Makan

Out · last detection 3 Apr 2026, 15:03 UTC

The fire started on 31 March 2026 in Bala, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,356 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 51th largest in Tambacounda since 2016 (of 291 with a page). Number 39 in Senegal in 2026, of 126.

Burnt area
4,356ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
31 Mar 2026 – 3 Apr 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
31 Mar
2026
Heat detections
128
in a single hotspot: 80 MW
Danger at start
66
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Apr 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Mar3 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

31123

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
47km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 109 ha in 2019, 631 ha in 2020, 538 ha in 2022, 385 ha in 2023, 162 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,636 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bala where it started
    2,806 ha reached on 31 Mar
    1.0 %
  2. Dianké Makan
    1,580 ha reached on 31 Mar
    0.5 %

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)
31 Mar 41.4 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
1 Apr 40.2 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
2 Apr 40.2 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
3 Apr 39.9 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
4 Apr after 40.6 °C 5 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Apr after 41.4 °C 6 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
6 Apr after 42.8 °C 6 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
7 Apr after 42.5 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
8 Apr after 42.6 °C 4 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
9 Apr after 42.9 °C 5 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Apr after 44.3 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
11 Apr after 43.2 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
12 Apr after 40.9 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Apr after 40.8 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Mar 2026
After · 10 Apr 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 1 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 140 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 86: 5.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak140 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10944 µg/m³
Optical depth0.55
293031123456
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 · 128Every 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 31 March 2026 and 3 April 2026: 4 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 4,356 hectares (43.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bala (2,806 ha, 1.0 %); Dianké Makan (1,580 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.4 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, class 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.