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Foni Kansala fire, March 2018 Foni Kansala, Foni Bondali

Out · last detection 22 Mar 2018, 15:08 UTC

The fire started on 20 March 2018 in Foni Kansala, Gambia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,795 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Brikama since 2016 (of 38 with a page). Number 3 in Gambia in 2018, of 16.

Burnt area
2,795ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
20 Mar 2018 – 22 Mar 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
20 Mar
2018
Heat detections
84
in a single hotspot: 261 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Mar 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Mar22 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

202122

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
31km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 851 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Foni Kansala where it started
    2,750 ha reached on 20 Mar
    14 %
  2. Foni Bondali
    61 ha
    0.4 %

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)
20 Mar 38.2 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Mar 37.5 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Mar 36.6 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Mar after 36.5 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Mar after 35.8 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Mar after 37.4 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
26 Mar after 36.7 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Mar after 34.7 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Mar after 39.2 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Mar after 36.4 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Mar after 35.9 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Mar after 37.8 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Apr after 37.7 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Mar 2018
After · 29 Mar 2018

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 · 84Every 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 Gambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Foni Kansala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 March 2018 and 22 March 2018: 3 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 2,795 hectares (28.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Foni Kansala (2,750 ha, 14 %); Foni Bondali (61 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Gambia (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.

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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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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.