Bandafassi fire, 11 December 2024 Bandafassi, Missira
The fire started on 11 December 2024 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,687 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 75th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 34 in Senegal in 2024, of 65.
- Burnt area
- 2,687ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 11 Dec 2024 – 14 Dec 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 11 Dec
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 75
- in a single hotspot: 60 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 991MW
- 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 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 618 ha in 2016, 1,264 ha in 2017, 819 ha in 2018, 2,074 ha in 2020, 1,003 ha in 2022, 1,435 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,540 ha that had burned before.
- 2,074 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2020 10,079 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,053 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2023 9,887 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 910 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2017 2,359 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 263 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2016 2,265 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 165 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2017 3,346 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 111 ha Missira fire, April 2017 2,278 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 110 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2016 4,130 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bandafassi where it started2,685 ha reached on 11 Dec0.5 %
-
23 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Dec | 35.6 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 12 Dec | 36.8 °C | 24 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 13 Dec | 38.9 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 14 Dec | 38.8 °C | 18 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 15 Dec after | 38.3 °C | 15 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 Dec after | 37.2 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 17 Dec after | 35.9 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 18 Dec after | 34.1 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 19 Dec after | 34.1 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 20 Dec after | 33.8 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 21 Dec after | 34.7 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Dec after | 35.0 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Dec after | 28.3 °C | 29 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 24 Dec after | 30.0 °C | 40 % | 29 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 30 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 17 December 2024 the air beside the fire reached 125 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 88: 5.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 75Every 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 11 December 2024 and 14 December 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 2,687 hectares (26.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bandafassi (2,685 ha, 0.5 %); Missira (23 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.