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Bandafassi fire, 12 January 2023 Bandafassi, Missira

Out · last detection 19 Jan 2023, 02:46 UTC

The fire started on 12 January 2023 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 34,293 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). The largest in Senegal in 2023, of 83.

Burnt area
34,293ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
12 Jan 2023 – 18 Jan 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
12 Jan
2023
Heat detections
1,067
in a single hotspot: 180 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jan 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jan18 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
38km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 17,260 ha in 2016, 19,136 ha in 2017, 2,408 ha in 2018, 3,005 ha in 2019, 21,022 ha in 2020, 21,703 ha in 2021, 6,803 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 32,492 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bandafassi where it started
    33,955 ha reached on 12 Jan
    5.9 %
  2. Missira
    574 ha reached on 15 Jan
    0.1 %

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 Jan 36.1 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Jan 36.6 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Jan 37.0 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Jan 37.4 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Jan 37.3 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Jan 37.2 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Jan 37.4 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Jan after 37.3 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan after 37.9 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Jan after 35.8 °C 18 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Jan after 35.1 °C 20 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Jan after 35.1 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Jan after 35.5 °C 26 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jan after 36.6 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jan after 39.9 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Jan after 39.2 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
28 Jan after 36.4 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jan 2023
After · 25 Jan 2023

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 · 1,067Every 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 12 January 2023 and 18 January 2023: 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 34,293 hectares (342.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bandafassi (33,955 ha, 5.9 %); Missira (574 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 38 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.

Report an error
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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.