Bandafassi fire, 14 March 2026 Bandafassi
The fire started on 14 March 2026 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,701 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 31th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 35 in Senegal in 2026, of 125.
The power measured by the satellite is low (19.9 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
- 4,701ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 14 Mar 2026 – 22 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 14 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 77
- in a single hotspot: 20 MW
- Danger at start
- 55
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 504MW
- 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
76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,181 ha in 2017, 1,836 ha in 2019, 458 ha in 2020, 164 ha in 2021, 140 ha in 2022, 114 ha in 2024, 2,454 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,568 ha that had burned before.
- 2,454 ha Bandafassi fire, February 2025 3,056 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 288 ha Bandafassi fire, February 2020 14,503 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 114 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2024 5,289 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 105 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2021 2,025 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2022 8,731 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bandafassi where it started4,734 ha reached on 14 Mar0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Mar | 40.3 °C | 15 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 15 Mar | 40.5 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 16 Mar | 39.3 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 17 Mar | 39.5 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 18 Mar | 38.8 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 19 Mar | 38.0 °C | 28 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 20 Mar | 39.1 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 21 Mar | 39.1 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 22 Mar | 39.3 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 23 Mar after | 37.0 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 24 Mar after | 38.2 °C | 24 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Mar after | 38.8 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 26 Mar after | 38.2 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 27 Mar after | 39.0 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 28 Mar after | 40.5 °C | 20 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Mar after | 42.0 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 30 Mar after | 40.9 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 31 Mar after | 39.4 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 1 Apr after | 39.4 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
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 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 82 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 41: 2.8 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 · 77Every 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 March 2026 and 22 March 2026: 9 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 4,701 hectares (47.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bandafassi (4,734 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.