Burned area
satellite only3,588ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 31 Dec 2022 – 2 Jan 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
SN · Senegal · –
Missira fire, 31 December 2022 Missira
Out · last detection 2 Jan 2023, 14:12 UTC
The fire started on 31 December 2022 in Missira, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,588 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 59th largest in Tambacounda since 2016 (of 222 with a page). Number 32 in Senegal in 2022, of 90.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only3days
31 Dec 2022 to 2 Jan 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 2 Jan 2023, 14:12 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only31 Dec 2022
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 31 Dec 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only93
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 38 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 31 Dec 2022 – 2 Jan 2023
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only953MW
Total radiative power on 1 January 2023; hotspots that day: 75.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 1 Jan 2023
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model43.3FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 31 Dec 2022, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model35.5°C · 18% RH
High of 35.5 °C and minimum humidity of 18% on 1 January 2023; gusts of 38 km/h on 31 December 2022.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 31 Dec 2022 – 2 Jan 2023
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 3,588 ha
- Dates
- 31 Dec 2022 – 2 Jan 2023
- Name
- Missira
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/missira-2022-12-3?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire missira-2022-12-3.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-12-31 | 9 | 41 | 34.5 | 19.7 | 20 | 17.2 | 38.2 | 0 | 43.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-01-01 | 75 | 953 | 35.5 | 20.6 | 18 | 17.3 | 35.6 | 0 | 46.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-01-02 | 9 | 23 | 34.3 | 19.9 | 21 | 12.9 | 28.8 | 0 | 41.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-01-03 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 19.7 | 17 | 19.6 | 39.6 | 0 | 50.3 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-01-04 | 0 | 0 | 35.6 | 20.4 | 15 | 17.3 | 37.4 | 0 | 49.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-01-05 | 0 | 0 | 34.3 | 19.5 | 19 | 15.1 | 33.1 | 0 | 47.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-01-06 | 0 | 0 | 35.1 | 18.4 | 16 | 12.8 | 28.8 | 0 | 45.1 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-01-07 | 0 | 0 | 35.6 | 19.1 | 18 | 13.8 | 30.6 | 0 | 46.5 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-01-08 | 0 | 0 | 33.7 | 21.9 | 16 | 23.5 | 40 | 0 | 58.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-01-09 | 0 | 0 | 30.2 | 23.7 | 18 | 20.8 | 42.5 | 0 | 54 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-01-10 | 0 | 0 | 35.4 | 20.8 | 16 | 17.8 | 37.1 | 0 | 50.7 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-01-11 | 0 | 0 | 35.9 | 21.7 | 15 | 19.6 | 38.9 | 0 | 53.2 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-01-12 | 0 | 0 | 36.4 | 19.4 | 14 | 13.9 | 29.9 | 0 | 47.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 3,588ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 31 Dec 2022 – 2 Jan 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 31 Dec
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 93
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 339MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
31 Dec2 Jan
2 Jan 2023
How it evolved, day by day
31 Dec
1 Jan
2 Jan
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
36°high
38km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 348 ha in 2016, 1,931 ha in 2017, 267 ha in 2018, 524 ha in 2019, 1,235 ha in 2020, 49 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,776 ha that had burned before.
- 448 ha Missira fire, March 2017 5,522 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 348 ha Missira fire, January 2016 2,009 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 267 ha Missira fire, December 2018 2,359 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 49 ha Missira fire, March 2021 2,170 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Missira where it started3,608 ha reached on 31 Dec0.4 %
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 2020Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable 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 60 days without rain: 79 % of the area in Senegal
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Dec | 34.5 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 1 Jan | 35.5 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 2 Jan | 34.3 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Jan after | 36.0 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 4 Jan after | 35.6 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 5 Jan after | 34.3 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 6 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 16 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Jan after | 35.6 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Jan after | 33.7 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 9 Jan after | 30.2 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 10 Jan after | 35.4 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 11 Jan after | 35.9 °C | 15 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 12 Jan after | 36.4 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 43.3, a minimum humidity of 20% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 27.
FWI at the start
43.3
Minimum humidity
20 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Missira fire, 31 December 2022
3,588 ha
3 days
FWI 43.3
Min. humidity 20 %
Guinguan fire, March 2022
2,329 ha
7 days
FWI 43.6
Min. humidity 20 %
107 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Missira fire, January 2024
6,402 ha
6 days
FWI 43.9
Min. humidity 21 %
45 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Bandafassi fire, December 2016
2,280 ha
9 days
FWI 44.1
Min. humidity 20 %
31 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Bandafassi fire, December 2024
3,807 ha
12 days
FWI 45.8
Min. humidity 20 %
35 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Madina do Boé fire, February 2017
1,082 ha
8 days
FWI 43.4
Min. humidity 20 %
161 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 6 days
- median duration
- 2,329 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 1.5 mm
- rain at the end (median; 1 of 27 had it)
It was 1.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 3 days, against 6 days.
Only 5 of its 27 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 26 of 27, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.5 mm.
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
38km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 2 Jan, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 1 of 27, with a median of 1.5 mm.
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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 24 Dec 2022
After · 9 Jan 2023
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 30 December 2022 the air beside the fire reached 158 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 77: 5.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak158 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM10360 µg/m³
Optical depth0.84
WHO 15
29 Dec31 Dec2 Jan4 Jan
Good
Fair
Moderate
Poor
Very poor
Extremely poor
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 93Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 24,965 haMissira28 December 2024 · 7 days · 5 km away
- 129,424 haMissira9 January 2026 · 51 days · 16 km away
- 34,293 haBandafassi12 January 2023 · 10 days · 19 km away
- 31,378 haBandafassi2 January 2020 · 19 days · 19 km away
- 32,579 haBandafassi14 January 2025 · 20 days · 29 km away
- 30,281 haBandafassi23 January 2016 · 22 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Missira fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 December 2022 and 2 January 2023: 3 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 3,588 hectares (35.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Missira (3,608 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
- 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: 27. Their median duration was 6 days and their median area 2,329 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 5 of its 27 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 26 of 27, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.5 mm.
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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 93 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.
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.