Bandafassi fire, 14 December 2024 Bandafassi
The fire started on 14 December 2024 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,831 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 69th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 28 in Senegal in 2024, of 65.
- Burnt area
- 2,831ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 14 Dec 2024 – 21 Dec 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 14 Dec
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 73
- in a single hotspot: 56 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 339MW
- 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 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 951 ha in 2016, 566 ha in 2017, 200 ha in 2019, 103 ha in 2020, 1,784 ha in 2021, 1,137 ha in 2022, 1,183 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,789 ha that had burned before.
- 1,137 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2022 5,284 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 914 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2016 4,130 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 562 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2021 2,145 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 443 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2023 4,213 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 46 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2023 9,887 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 36 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2020 10,079 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bandafassi where it started2,852 ha reached on 13 Dec0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Dec | 38.4 °C | 19 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 15 Dec | 37.9 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 16 Dec | 36.9 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 17 Dec | 35.5 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 18 Dec | 33.9 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 19 Dec | 33.8 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 20 Dec | 33.4 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 21 Dec | 34.4 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Dec after | 34.9 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Dec after | 27.6 °C | 31 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Dec after | 30.3 °C | 38 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 25 Dec after | 33.3 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 26 Dec after | 36.2 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 27 Dec after | 37.3 °C | 14 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 28 Dec after | 36.9 °C | 16 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 29 Dec after | 37.0 °C | 16 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 30 Dec after | 36.6 °C | 16 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 31 Dec after | 35.4 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
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 23 December 2024 the air beside the fire reached 138 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 113: 7.5 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 · 73Every 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 14 December 2024 and 21 December 2024: 8 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 2,831 hectares (28.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bandafassi (2,852 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.