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Bona fire, 6 March 2022 Bona, Sindian

Out · last detection 16 Mar 2022, 13:46 UTC

The fire started on 6 March 2022 in Bona, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,919 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Sédhiou since 2016 (of 86 with a page). Number 17 in Senegal in 2022, of 90.

Burnt area
4,919ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
6 Mar 2022 – 15 Mar 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
6 Mar
2022
Heat detections
203
in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Mar 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Mar15 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

678910111213141516

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

41°high
39km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,686 ha in 2018, 657 ha in 2020, 1,682 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,695 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bona where it started
    3,894 ha reached on 6 Mar
    4.8 %
  2. Sindian
    1,056 ha reached on 10 Mar
    0.7 %

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)
6 Mar 36.3 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Mar 38.1 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Mar 38.8 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Mar 38.0 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
10 Mar 38.0 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Mar 41.2 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Mar 40.7 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Mar 40.0 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Mar 38.5 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Mar 36.9 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Mar after 35.7 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Mar after 37.6 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Mar after 38.6 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Mar after 37.5 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Mar after 36.0 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Mar after 38.3 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Mar after 39.9 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Mar after 38.8 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Mar after 38.7 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Mar after 37.0 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 27 Feb 2022
After · 22 Mar 2022

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 · 203Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Senegal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bona fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 March 2022 and 15 March 2022: 10 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 4,919 hectares (49.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bona (3,894 ha, 4.8 %); Sindian (1,056 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 39 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 18.

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.