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Mampatim fire, March 2017 Mampatim

Out · last detection 23 Mar 2017, 13:52 UTC

The fire started on 18 March 2017 in Mampatim, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,807 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 81th largest in Kolda since 2016 (of 195 with a page). Number 30 in Senegal in 2017, of 75.

Burnt area
2,807ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
18 Mar 2017 – 23 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Mar
2017
Heat detections
73
in a single hotspot: 55 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
633MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Mar23 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1819202223

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
36km/h · peak gust
15%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. Mampatim where it started
    2,824 ha reached on 18 Mar
    1.2 %

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)
18 Mar 37.4 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Mar 36.1 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Mar 37.9 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Mar 39.4 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Mar 39.5 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Mar 38.3 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Mar after 38.3 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Mar after 37.0 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Mar after 39.7 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Mar after 41.2 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Mar after 39.5 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Mar after 38.7 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Mar after 38.6 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Mar after 39.2 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Apr after 40.0 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Apr after 39.6 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Mar 2017
After · 30 Mar 2017

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 · 73Every 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 Mampatim fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 March 2017 and 23 March 2017: 6 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 2,807 hectares (28.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mampatim (2,824 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.