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Bandafassi fire, 23 January 2016 Bandafassi, Missira

Out · last detection 11 Feb 2016, 14:06 UTC

The fire started on 23 January 2016 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 30,325 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

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

Burnt area
30,325ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
23 Jan 2016 – 10 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
23 Jan
2016
Heat detections
1,120
in a single hotspot: 88 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
7.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jan10 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

23242526282930311234567891011

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
54km/h · peak gust
9%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
    27,392 ha reached on 23 Jan
    4.7 %
  2. Missira
    3,137 ha reached on 26 Jan
    0.4 %

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)
23 Jan 36.3 °C 14 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
24 Jan 36.6 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Jan 37.5 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Jan 36.5 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Jan 33.3 °C 20 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
28 Jan 32.9 °C 22 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Jan 36.6 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
30 Jan 36.9 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Jan 35.6 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
1 Feb 35.5 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
2 Feb 34.1 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
3 Feb 35.3 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
4 Feb 36.8 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Feb 39.2 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Feb 38.9 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
7 Feb 38.8 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
8 Feb 38.2 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
9 Feb 37.7 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
10 Feb 36.2 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
11 Feb after 38.5 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
12 Feb after 38.6 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
13 Feb after 38.6 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
14 Feb after 37.7 °C 7 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
15 Feb after 38.2 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Feb after 38.2 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Feb after 36.9 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
18 Feb after 37.8 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
19 Feb after 37.8 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Feb after 32.7 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jan 2016
After · 17 Feb 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 · 1,120Every 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 23 January 2016 and 10 February 2016: 19 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 30,325 hectares (303.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bandafassi (27,392 ha, 4.7 %); Missira (3,137 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, 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.

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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.