Bandafassi fire, 15 January 2023 Bandafassi, Missira
The fire started on 15 January 2023 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,648 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 24th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 7 in Senegal in 2023, of 83.
- Burnt area
- 5,648ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 15 Jan 2023 – 20 Jan 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 15 Jan
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 150
- in a single hotspot: 73 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- 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
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,144 ha in 2016, 1,240 ha in 2017, 69 ha in 2018, 2,149 ha in 2019, 1,464 ha in 2020, 3,104 ha in 2021, 2,827 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,283 ha that had burned before.
- 3,276 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2016 30,325 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,390 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2021 21,620 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 709 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2020 31,411 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 623 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2019 2,187 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 616 ha Missira fire, February 2020 3,654 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 571 ha Missira fire, January 2019 7,159 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 562 ha Missira fire, February 2022 12,808 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 381 ha Missira fire, February 2017 6,235 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bandafassi where it started4,972 ha reached on 15 Jan0.9 %
-
714 ha reached on 17 Jan0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Jan | 37.7 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 16 Jan | 37.7 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 17 Jan | 37.4 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 18 Jan | 37.6 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 19 Jan | 37.5 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 20 Jan | 38.2 °C | 15 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 21 Jan after | 36.3 °C | 18 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Jan after | 35.8 °C | 19 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 23 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Jan after | 36.3 °C | 24 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Jan after | 37.0 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Jan after | 40.4 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 27 Jan after | 39.4 °C | 15 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 28 Jan after | 36.8 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 29 Jan after | 35.3 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 30 Jan after | 36.2 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
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 · 150Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 24,965 haMissira28 December 2024 · 7 days · 15 km away
- 34,293 haBandafassi12 January 2023 · 7 days · 18 km away
- 31,411 haBandafassi2 January 2020 · 19 days · 18 km away
- 25,335 haBandafassi8 February 2026 · 21 days · 18 km away
- 131,818 haMissira10 January 2026 · 50 days · 30 km away
- 30,325 haBandafassi23 January 2016 · 19 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bandafassi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 January 2023 and 20 January 2023: 6 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 5,648 hectares (56.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bandafassi (4,972 ha, 0.9 %); Missira (714 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 39 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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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.