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Bona fire, January 2026 Bona, Bogal

Out · last detection 1 Feb 2026, 14:05 UTC

The fire started on 26 January 2026 in Bona, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,769 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Sédhiou since 2016 (of 86 with a page). Number 17 in Senegal in 2026, of 126.

Burnt area
7,769ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
26 Jan 2026 – 1 Feb 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
26 Jan
2026
Heat detections
157
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Feb 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jan1 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

2627282930311

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
38km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 860 ha in 2016, 783 ha in 2018, 750 ha in 2019, 1,330 ha in 2020, 659 ha in 2021, 2,124 ha in 2022, 2,721 ha in 2023, 1,423 ha in 2024, 731 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,909 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bona where it started
    7,809 ha reached on 26 Jan
    9.6 %
  2. Bogal
    10 ha reached on 26 Jan
    0.0 %

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)
26 Jan 34.0 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Jan 34.4 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Jan 35.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jan 35.7 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Jan 36.5 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Jan 36.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Feb 35.9 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Feb after 35.0 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Feb after 35.6 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Feb after 34.2 °C 36 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Feb after 32.0 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Feb after 32.1 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Feb after 36.0 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Feb after 36.2 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Feb after 37.4 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Feb after 36.2 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Feb after 37.0 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Jan 2026
After · 8 Feb 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 27 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 98 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 83: 5.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak98 µg/m³
Days over the guideline12 days
PM10318 µg/m³
Optical depth0.56
24252627282930311234
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 157Every 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 26 January 2026 and 1 February 2026: 7 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 7,769 hectares (77.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bona (7,809 ha, 9.6 %); Bogal (10 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
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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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.