Bandafassi fire, 21 January 2024 Bandafassi
The fire started on 21 January 2024 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,441 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 35th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 11 in Senegal in 2024, of 65.
The power measured by the satellite is low (23.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 4,441ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 21 Jan 2024 – 24 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 21 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 121
- in a single hotspot: 24 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 776MW
- 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
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,885 ha in 2016, 1,758 ha in 2017, 2,144 ha in 2019, 620 ha in 2020, 2,558 ha in 2021, 2,644 ha in 2022, 2,445 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,411 ha that had burned before.
- 2,849 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2016 30,325 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,558 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2021 21,620 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,292 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2023 5,648 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,025 ha Bandafassi fire, February 2017 2,123 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 624 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2019 2,187 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 599 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2020 31,411 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 303 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2022 2,723 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2022 10,531 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bandafassi where it started4,472 ha reached on 21 Jan0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jan | 38.5 °C | 16 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Jan | 38.4 °C | 9 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 23 Jan | 37.2 °C | 8 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 24 Jan | 36.5 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 25 Jan after | 39.1 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 26 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 27 Jan after | 37.8 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 28 Jan after | 37.1 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 29 Jan after | 37.2 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 30 Jan after | 37.1 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 31 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 1 Feb after | 36.4 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 2 Feb after | 38.0 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 3 Feb after | 38.4 °C | 8 % | 39 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 · 121Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 34,293 haBandafassi12 January 2023 · 7 days · 15 km away
- 31,411 haBandafassi2 January 2020 · 19 days · 15 km away
- 24,965 haMissira28 December 2024 · 7 days · 17 km away
- 25,335 haBandafassi8 February 2026 · 21 days · 20 km away
- 131,818 haMissira10 January 2026 · 50 days · 29 km away
- 30,325 haBandafassi23 January 2016 · 19 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bandafassi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 January 2024 and 24 January 2024: 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 4,441 hectares (44.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bandafassi (4,472 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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.