Bandafassi fire, April 2022 Bandafassi
The fire started on 10 April 2022 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,561 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 34th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 20 in Senegal in 2022, of 90.
- Burnt area
- 4,561ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 10 Apr 2022 – 13 Apr 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 10 Apr
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 118
- in a single hotspot: 33 MW
- Danger at start
- 61
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 766MW
- 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
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,074 ha in 2016, 897 ha in 2017, 1,382 ha in 2019, 2,312 ha in 2020, 2,579 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,966 ha that had burned before.
- 2,312 ha Bandafassi fire, February 2020 14,503 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,202 ha Bandafassi fire, February 2021 7,027 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 987 ha Bandafassi fire, February 2019 2,137 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 774 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2016 3,700 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 346 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2021 2,571 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bandafassi where it started4,594 ha reached on 10 Apr0.8 %
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 Apr | 44.3 °C | 12 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 11 Apr | 42.6 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 12 Apr | 41.5 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 13 Apr | 40.5 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 14 Apr after | 41.8 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 15 Apr after | 41.9 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 16 Apr after | 43.0 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 17 Apr after | 43.2 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 18 Apr after | 40.7 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 19 Apr after | 40.4 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 20 Apr after | 40.6 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 21 Apr after | 43.6 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 22 Apr after | 43.0 °C | 10 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 23 Apr after | 43.2 °C | 8 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
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 · 118Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bandafassi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 April 2022 and 13 April 2022: 4 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 4,561 hectares (45.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bandafassi (4,594 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 44.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 42 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.
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.