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Bandafassi fire, 17 January 2021 Bandafassi, Missira

Out · last detection 25 Jan 2021, 13:27 UTC

The fire started on 17 January 2021 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,620 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). The largest in Senegal in 2021, of 73.

Burnt area
21,620ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
17 Jan 2021 – 25 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
17 Jan
2021
Heat detections
687
in a single hotspot: 109 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jan 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jan25 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

171819202122232425

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
42km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13,556 ha in 2016, 11,302 ha in 2017, 2,444 ha in 2018, 5,343 ha in 2019, 13,105 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 20,100 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bandafassi where it started
    21,328 ha reached on 15 Jan
    3.7 %
  2. Missira
    443 ha reached on 19 Jan
    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)
17 Jan 34.8 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Jan 36.8 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Jan 36.6 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Jan 38.8 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Jan 39.7 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
22 Jan 36.5 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
23 Jan 36.2 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Jan 37.1 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
25 Jan 38.2 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Jan after 38.5 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Jan after 39.2 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 Jan after 38.3 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Jan after 39.0 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Jan after 39.6 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Jan after 38.1 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
1 Feb after 39.0 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
2 Feb after 39.5 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
3 Feb after 38.8 °C 18 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Feb after 39.5 °C 13 % 22 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.

Before · 10 Jan 2021
After · 1 Feb 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 · 687Every 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 17 January 2021 and 25 January 2021: 9 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 21,620 hectares (216.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bandafassi (21,328 ha, 3.7 %); Missira (443 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 42 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
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.