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Fafacourou fire, March 2016 Fafacourou

Out · last detection 15 Mar 2016, 13:47 UTC

The fire started on 11 March 2016 in Fafacourou, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,139 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 19th largest in Kolda since 2016 (of 195 with a page). Number 6 in Senegal in 2016, of 58.

Burnt area
5,139ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
11 Mar 2016 – 15 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
11 Mar
2016
Heat detections
186
in a single hotspot: 101 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Mar15 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
29km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Fafacourou where it started
    5,172 ha reached on 10 Mar
    5.8 %

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)
11 Mar 38.6 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
12 Mar 38.3 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Mar 38.3 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Mar 37.9 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Mar 39.0 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Mar after 41.9 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
17 Mar after 41.2 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Mar after 41.5 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Mar after 42.3 °C 7 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Mar after 40.8 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
21 Mar after 40.0 °C 13 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Mar after 39.8 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
23 Mar after 40.7 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
24 Mar after 38.5 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
25 Mar after 38.4 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Mar 2016
After · 22 Mar 2016

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 · 186Every 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 Fafacourou fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 March 2016 and 15 March 2016: 5 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 5,139 hectares (51.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Fafacourou (5,172 ha, 5.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.