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SN · Senegal · –

Mampatim fire, 21 February 2021 Mampatim

Out · last detection 3 Mar 2021, 02:26 UTC

The fire started on 21 February 2021 in Mampatim, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,047 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 47th largest in Kolda since 2016 (of 151 with a page). Number 29 in Senegal in 2021, of 73.

Burnt area
3,047ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
21 Feb 2021 – 3 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
21 Feb
2021
Heat detections
77
in a single hotspot: 78 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
106MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Feb3 Mar
3 Mar 2021

How it evolved, day by day

21 Feb 2021 · 73 MW · 7 22 Feb 2021 · 16 MW · 2 23 Feb 2021 · 260 MW · 24 24 Feb 2021 · 550 MW · 29 27 Feb 2021 · 13 MW · 5 28 Feb 2021 · 13 MW · 2 1 Mar 2021 · 3 MW · 1 2 Mar 2021 · 25 MW · 6 3 Mar 2021 · 2 MW · 1
21 Feb 24 Feb 1 Mar 3 Mar

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
48km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,448 ha in 2020.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.9% of the area of London (30 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Mampatim where it started
    3,064 ha reached on 21 Feb
    1.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area0.10 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.10 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with Very dry air: 43 % of the area in Senegal 60 days without rain: 79 % of the area in Senegal

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
21 Feb 39.6 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Feb 40.7 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Feb 39.2 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Feb 39.7 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Feb 38.5 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Feb 37.3 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
27 Feb 36.2 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
28 Feb 36.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Mar 37.4 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Mar 39.7 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Mar 40.9 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Mar after 40.0 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Mar after 38.0 °C 26 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Mar after 38.7 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Mar after 38.1 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Mar after 39.9 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Mar after 39.0 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Mar after 38.4 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Mar after 38.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
12 Mar after 39.0 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Mar after 38.2 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 53.7, a minimum humidity of 11% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 60.

FWI at the start 53.7
Minimum humidity 11 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Fafacourou fire, February 2016
2,159 ha 7 days FWI 53.7 Min. humidity 11 % 46 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

5 days
median duration
2,324 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
—
rain at the end (median; 0 of 60 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,047 ha against a median of 2,324 ha) and lasted 11 days, against 5 days.

In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
48km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 3 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. None of its 60 twins had rain when they ended.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Feb 2021
After · 10 Mar 2021

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 · 77Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 February 2021 to 3 March 2021 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 February 2021 to 3 March 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,047 hectares (30.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mampatim (3,064 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.9 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 60. Their median duration was 5 days and their median area 2,324 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 22 February 2021 → 21 February 2021.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 February 2021 to 3 March 2021. 77 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.