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Bandafassi fire, 14 January 2016 Bandafassi

Out · last detection 18 Jan 2016, 02:09 UTC

The fire started on 14 January 2016 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,382 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 26th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 4 in Senegal in 2016, of 58.

Burnt area
5,382ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
14 Jan 2016 – 18 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Jan
2016
Heat detections
120
in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
861MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jan18 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

14161718

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
37km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Bandafassi where it started
    5,418 ha reached on 14 Jan
    0.9 %

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)
14 Jan 36.2 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Jan 34.8 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Jan 37.0 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Jan 37.0 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Jan 37.0 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Jan after 36.2 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Jan after 33.3 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Jan after 31.1 °C 23 % 20 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 41
22 Jan after 31.7 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Jan after 35.7 °C 13 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Jan after 36.1 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Jan after 36.9 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Jan after 35.9 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Jan after 32.7 °C 20 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
28 Jan after 32.3 °C 22 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jan 2016
After · 25 Jan 2016

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 · 120Every 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 Bandafassi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 January 2016 and 18 January 2016: 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 5,382 hectares (53.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bandafassi (5,418 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.