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SN · Senegal · –

Missira fire, 22 January 2024 Missira

Out · last detection 27 Jan 2024, 13:59 UTC

The fire started on 22 January 2024 in Missira, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,222 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 167th largest in Tambacounda since 2016 (of 222 with a page). Number 49 in Senegal in 2024, of 65.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,222ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
22 Jan 2024 – 27 Jan 2024
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Jan
2024
Heat detections
86
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
63
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
47MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jan27 Jan
27 Jan 2024

How it evolved, day by day

22 Jan 2024 · 0 MW · 1 23 Jan 2024 · 57 MW · 10 24 Jan 2024 · 13 MW · 9 25 Jan 2024 · 82 MW · 19 26 Jan 2024 · 82 MW · 28 27 Jan 2024 · 48 MW · 19
22 Jan 25 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

39°high
41km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,492 ha in 2016, 354 ha in 2017, 4 ha in 2018, 79 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,571 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.4% of the area of London (22 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. Missira where it started
    2,235 ha reached on 22 Jan
    0.3 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
22 Jan 38.6 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
23 Jan 37.3 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
24 Jan 36.4 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
25 Jan 39.2 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Jan 38.2 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
27 Jan 37.9 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
28 Jan after 37.3 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
29 Jan after 37.3 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
30 Jan after 37.4 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
31 Jan after 37.2 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
1 Feb after 36.7 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
2 Feb after 38.6 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
3 Feb after 38.7 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
4 Feb after 39.3 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
5 Feb after 40.2 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
6 Feb after 40.0 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 63.1, a minimum humidity of 8% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 36.

FWI at the start 63.1
Minimum humidity 8 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Missira fire, February 2022
18,183 ha 11 days FWI 62.5 Min. humidity 8 % 8 km away, in 2022

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

What happened to them

5 days
median duration
2,611 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
—
rain at the end (median; 0 of 36 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (2,222 ha against a median of 2,611 ha) and lasted 6 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
41km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 27 Jan, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. None of its 36 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 · 15 Jan 2024
After · 3 Feb 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 25 January 2024 the air beside the fire reached 130 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 92: 6.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak130 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10307 µg/m³
Optical depth0.73
21 Jan23 Jan25 Jan27 Jan29 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 · 86Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 January 2024 to 27 January 2024 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 January 2024 to 27 January 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,222 hectares (22.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Missira (2,235 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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: 36. Their median duration was 5 days and their median area 2,611 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: 23 January 2024 → 22 January 2024.

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 23 January 2024 to 27 January 2024. 86 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 2025, 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.