Kataba1 fire, March 2022 Kataba1
The fire started on 28 March 2022 in Kataba1, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,957 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 15th largest in Ziguinchor since 2016 (of 40 with a page). Number 43 in Senegal in 2022, of 90.
- Burnt area
- 2,957ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 28 Mar 2022 – 1 Apr 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Mar
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 92
- in a single hotspot: 82 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 18 ha in 2017, 2,217 ha in 2019, 1,575 ha in 2020, 637 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,852 ha that had burned before.
- 1,575 ha Kataba1 fire, February 2020 2,786 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,289 ha Kataba1 fire, February 2019 2,642 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 18 ha Kataba1 fire, March 2017 3,560 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kataba1 where it started2,977 ha reached on 29 Mar1.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Mar | 34.7 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 29 Mar | 35.5 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 30 Mar | 35.1 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Mar | 34.7 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Apr | 38.0 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Apr after | 35.8 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Apr after | 31.3 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Apr after | 33.8 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 5 Apr after | 33.6 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 6 Apr after | 35.8 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Apr after | 39.5 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Apr after | 41.3 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 9 Apr after | 40.8 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Apr after | 39.3 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 11 Apr after | 35.2 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
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.
Detections table · 92Every 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 Kataba1 fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 March 2022 and 1 April 2022: 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 2,957 hectares (29.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kataba1 (2,977 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.
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.