Karantaba fire, 8 March 2026 Karantaba
The fire started on 8 March 2026 in Karantaba, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,353 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 31th largest in Sédhiou since 2016 (of 86 with a page). Number 52 in Senegal in 2026, of 126.
- Burnt area
- 3,353ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 8 Mar 2026 – 18 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 43
- in a single hotspot: 49 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 347MW
- 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
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,274 ha in 2019, 1,430 ha in 2020, 1,157 ha in 2022, 523 ha in 2023, 1,546 ha in 2024, 204 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,976 ha that had burned before.
- 1,546 ha Karantaba fire, February 2024 3,423 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 758 ha Karantaba fire, February 2019 2,364 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 523 ha Karantaba fire, March 2023 2,099 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Karantaba where it started3,373 ha reached on 8 Mar7.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Mar | 38.5 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 9 Mar | 39.9 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 10 Mar | 39.5 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 11 Mar | 38.5 °C | 17 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 12 Mar | 39.4 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 13 Mar | 38.6 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Mar | 38.2 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Mar | 39.3 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 16 Mar | 38.2 °C | 20 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 17 Mar | 36.9 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 18 Mar | 36.0 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 19 Mar after | 36.4 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 20 Mar after | 36.5 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 21 Mar after | 36.3 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 22 Mar after | 36.5 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Mar after | 33.6 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Mar after | 35.7 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Mar after | 35.2 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Mar after | 35.5 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 27 Mar after | 36.5 °C | 28 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Mar after | 38.3 °C | 28 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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 10 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 52 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 35: 2.3 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 · 43Every 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 Karantaba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 March 2026 and 18 March 2026: 11 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 3,353 hectares (33.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Karantaba (3,373 ha, 7.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.