Mansabá fire, March 2019 Mansabá, Bambadinca
The fire started on 4 March 2019 in Mansabá, Guinea-Bissau, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,315 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 4th largest in Oio since 2016 (of 58 with a page). Number 2 in Guinea-Bissau in 2019, of 30.
- Burnt area
- 3,315ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 4 Mar 2019 – 17 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sectors
- Started on
- 4 Mar
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 131
- in a single hotspot: 46 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · 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
30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 965 ha in 2016, 502 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 989 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Mansabá where it started3,169 ha reached on 4 Mar2.5 %
-
166 ha reached on 7 Mar0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Mar | 37.4 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 5 Mar | 39.0 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 6 Mar | 39.7 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 7 Mar | 39.2 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 8 Mar | 38.0 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 9 Mar | 38.0 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 10 Mar | 38.5 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 11 Mar | 40.2 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 12 Mar | 39.5 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 13 Mar | 38.8 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 14 Mar | 39.3 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 15 Mar | 40.3 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 16 Mar | 40.7 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 17 Mar | 40.4 °C | 15 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 18 Mar after | 39.7 °C | 17 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 19 Mar after | 40.0 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 20 Mar after | 37.9 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 21 Mar after | 38.0 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 22 Mar after | 35.2 °C | 26 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Mar after | 35.6 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Mar after | 36.2 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Mar after | 36.5 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Mar after | 35.0 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 27 Mar after | 37.1 °C | 29 % | 28 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.
Detections table · 131Every 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 Mansabá fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 March 2019 to 17 March 2019 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 March 2019 to 17 March 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,315 hectares (33.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mansabá (3,169 ha, 2.5 %); Bambadinca (166 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea-Bissau (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 ADM2 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.