Lei fire, 2 January 2023 Lei, Sandor
The fire started on 2 January 2023 in Lei, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,879 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 29th largest in Eastern since 2016 (of 263 with a page). Number 12 in Sierra Leone in 2023, of 160.
The power measured by the satellite is low (12.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 2,879ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 2 Jan 2023 – 8 Jan 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 2 Jan
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 90
- in a single hotspot: 12 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 304MW
- 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 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 860 ha in 2016, 833 ha in 2018, 798 ha in 2019, 1,050 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,294 ha that had burned before.
- 1,050 ha Lei fire, January 2020 2,489 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 858 ha Lei fire, January 2016 1,020 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 833 ha Lei fire, December 2018 1,003 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 754 ha Neya fire, February 2019 2,463 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 44 ha Sandor fire, February 2019 2,348 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Sandor fire, January 2016 3,648 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lei where it started2,797 ha reached on 28 Dec4.2 %
-
96 ha reached on 4 Jan0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Jan | 28.8 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 3 Jan | 28.9 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 4 Jan | 28.7 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 5 Jan | 28.5 °C | 23 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 6 Jan | 28.5 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 7 Jan | 29.4 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 8 Jan | 29.8 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Jan after | 28.9 °C | 22 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Jan after | 29.9 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 11 Jan after | 28.7 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 12 Jan after | 29.2 °C | 26 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 13 Jan after | 29.4 °C | 23 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 14 Jan after | 30.7 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 15 Jan after | 29.6 °C | 25 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Jan after | 30.5 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 17 Jan after | 30.2 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 18 Jan after | 30.4 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
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 · 90Every 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 Lei fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 January 2023 and 8 January 2023: 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 2,879 hectares (28.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lei (2,797 ha, 4.2 %); Sandor (96 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Sierra Leone (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.
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 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.