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SN · Senegal · →

Missira fire, March 2017 Missira, Bandafassi

Out · last detection 24 Mar 2017, 13:33 UTC

The fire started on 20 March 2017 in Missira, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,522 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 33th largest in Tambacounda since 2016 (of 291 with a page). Number 5 in Senegal in 2017, of 75.

Burnt area
5,522ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
20 Mar 2017 – 24 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
20 Mar
2017
Heat detections
191
in a single hotspot: 262 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Mar24 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
37km/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

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,084 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Missira where it started
    5,453 ha reached on 20 Mar
    0.6 %
  2. Bandafassi
    99 ha
    0.0 %

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)
20 Mar 39.8 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Mar 41.0 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Mar 41.2 °C 11 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Mar 40.2 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Mar 41.6 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
25 Mar after 38.2 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Mar after 41.5 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
27 Mar after 42.7 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Mar after 42.9 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
29 Mar after 41.2 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Mar after 40.4 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 56
31 Mar after 41.4 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Apr after 42.9 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Apr after 41.1 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Apr after 40.0 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Mar 2017
After · 31 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 · 191Every 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 Missira fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 March 2017 and 24 March 2017: 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 5,522 hectares (55.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Missira (5,453 ha, 0.6 %); Bandafassi (99 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.6 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.