Bandafassi fire, March 2020 Bandafassi, Missira
The fire started on 12 March 2020 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,943 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 63th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 27 in Senegal in 2020, of 73.
- Burnt area
- 2,943ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 12 Mar 2020 – 18 Mar 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 12 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 78
- in a single hotspot: 43 MW
- Danger at start
- 64
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 560MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 605 ha in 2016, 76 ha in 2017, 1,504 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,948 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Bandafassi where it started2,749 ha reached on 13 Mar0.5 %
-
215 ha reached on 13 Mar0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Mar | 42.0 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 13 Mar | 41.1 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 14 Mar | 41.2 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 15 Mar | 40.5 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 16 Mar | 40.8 °C | 9 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 17 Mar | 41.4 °C | 10 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 18 Mar | 40.4 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 19 Mar after | 39.9 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 20 Mar after | 41.2 °C | 16 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 21 Mar after | 41.7 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 22 Mar after | 41.8 °C | 15 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 23 Mar after | 39.3 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 24 Mar after | 37.5 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 25 Mar after | 38.8 °C | 15 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 26 Mar after | 39.6 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Mar after | 39.9 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 28 Mar after | 40.4 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 78Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 32,881 haBandafassi18 January 2025 · 16 days · 12 km away
- 131,818 haMissira10 January 2026 · 50 days · 15 km away
- 30,325 haBandafassi23 January 2016 · 19 days · 17 km away
- 23,888 haMissira19 January 2023 · 18 days · 17 km away
- 34,293 haBandafassi12 January 2023 · 7 days · 24 km away
- 31,411 haBandafassi2 January 2020 · 19 days · 24 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bandafassi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 March 2020 and 18 March 2020: 7 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 2,943 hectares (29.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bandafassi (2,749 ha, 0.5 %); Missira (215 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 42.0 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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
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.