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Bandafassi fire, 26 December 2020 Bandafassi, Missira

Out · last detection 2 Jan 2021, 13:58 UTC

The fire started on 26 December 2020 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,079 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 4 in Senegal in 2020, of 73.

Burnt area
10,079ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
26 Dec 2020 – 2 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
26 Dec
2020
Heat detections
269
in a single hotspot: 76 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Jan 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Dec2 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

26272829303112

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
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

67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,274 ha in 2016, 5,549 ha in 2017, 1,170 ha in 2018, 42 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,733 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bandafassi where it started
    10,139 ha reached on 26 Dec
    1.8 %
  2. Missira
    16 ha
    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)
26 Dec 38.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Dec 39.0 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Dec 38.4 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Dec 38.7 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Dec 39.7 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Dec 39.8 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Jan 38.8 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Jan 38.4 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Jan after 38.2 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Jan after 38.6 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Jan after 39.1 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
6 Jan after 39.1 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Jan after 40.2 °C 9 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Jan after 38.6 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Jan after 39.1 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
10 Jan after 37.1 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Jan after 34.4 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Jan after 35.3 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Jan after 37.3 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Jan after 38.3 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Dec 2020
After · 9 Jan 2021

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 · 269Every 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 26 December 2020 and 2 January 2021: 8 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 10,079 hectares (100.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bandafassi (10,139 ha, 1.8 %); Missira (16 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °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.

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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.