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Bandafassi fire, March 2017 Bandafassi, Missira

Out · last detection 16 Mar 2017, 03:16 UTC

The fire started on 10 March 2017 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,828 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 2 in Senegal in 2017, of 75.

Burnt area
8,828ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
10 Mar 2017 – 15 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
10 Mar
2017
Heat detections
247
in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Mar15 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
36km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,927 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Bandafassi where it started
    8,497 ha reached on 11 Mar
    1.5 %
  2. Missira
    393 ha reached on 13 Mar
    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 Mar 40.1 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
11 Mar 40.0 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Mar 39.9 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Mar 40.5 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Mar 38.6 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Mar 39.1 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Mar after 42.3 °C 9 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
17 Mar after 42.2 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Mar after 38.8 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Mar after 38.3 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
20 Mar after 39.6 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Mar after 40.8 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Mar after 41.0 °C 11 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Mar after 40.0 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Mar after 41.4 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
25 Mar after 38.0 °C 25 % 41 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 · 3 Mar 2017
After · 22 Mar 2017

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 · 247Every 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 10 March 2017 and 15 March 2017: 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 8,828 hectares (88.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bandafassi (8,497 ha, 1.5 %); Missira (393 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.