Burned area
satellite only7,324ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 28 Dec 2024 – 4 Jan 2025
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
SN · Senegal · –
Missira fire, 28 December 2024 Missira
Out · last detection 4 Jan 2025, 02:20 UTC
The fire started on 28 December 2024 in Missira, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,324 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 11th largest in Tambacounda since 2016 (of 222 with a page). Number 3 in Senegal in 2024, of 65.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-27matches 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 only8days
28 Dec 2024 to 4 Jan 2025: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 4 Jan 2025, 02:20 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 only28 Dec 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 28 Dec 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only250
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 52 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 28 Dec 2024 – 4 Jan 2025
+− 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 only833MW
Total radiative power on 29 December 2024; hotspots that day: 56.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 29 Dec 2024
+− 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
model57.3FWI · extreme
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
- 28 Dec 2024, 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
model37.4°C · 17% RH
High of 37.4 °C and minimum humidity of 17% on 29 December 2024; gusts of 45 km/h on 29 December 2024.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 28 Dec 2024 – 4 Jan 2025
- 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 weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 2 January 2025 → 4 January 2025.
-
logStart date: 29 December 2024 → 28 December 2024.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 27 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
- 7,324 ha
- Dates
- 28 Dec 2024 – 4 Jan 2025
- Name
- Missira
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/missira-2024-12-4?v=2026-10-27A 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-2024-12-4.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-12-28 | 1 | 7 | 37.1 | 21 | 17 | 21.1 | 42.8 | 0 | 57.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-12-29 | 56 | 833 | 37.4 | 23.3 | 17 | 22.2 | 45.4 | 0 | 59.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-12-30 | 65 | 286 | 36.9 | 22.2 | 18 | 21.2 | 44.6 | 0 | 58.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-12-31 | 48 | 163 | 35.4 | 22.3 | 20 | 17.2 | 36 | 0 | 52.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-01 | 53 | 295 | 33.9 | 20.9 | 18 | 18 | 38.2 | 0 | 53.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-02 | 22 | 166 | 33.4 | 19.5 | 19 | 19.1 | 39.6 | 0 | 54.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-03 | 1 | 7 | 32.8 | 19.2 | 19 | 21.3 | 40.7 | 0 | 56.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-04 | 4 | 3 | 32.5 | 18.2 | 20 | 17.4 | 35.3 | 0 | 50.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-05 | 0 | 0 | 33.4 | 19.6 | 19 | 13.1 | 29.2 | 0 | 46.1 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-01-06 | 0 | 0 | 35.6 | 17.9 | 15 | 13.5 | 30.2 | 0 | 46.8 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-01-07 | 0 | 0 | 36.6 | 20.6 | 13 | 16.6 | 34.6 | 0 | 52.7 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-01-08 | 0 | 0 | 37.3 | 21.1 | 15 | 16.9 | 36 | 0 | 53.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-01-09 | 0 | 0 | 37.6 | 22 | 18 | 17.5 | 37.1 | 0 | 54.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-01-10 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 22 | 16 | 17.8 | 37.8 | 0 | 55.1 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-01-11 | 0 | 0 | 35.1 | 21.1 | 18 | 18.1 | 38.5 | 0 | 55.5 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-01-12 | 0 | 0 | 35.1 | 17.9 | 18 | 15.4 | 31.7 | 0 | 52.3 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-01-13 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 18.9 | 18 | 12.2 | 27.4 | 0 | 48.8 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-01-14 | 0 | 0 | 36.7 | 22.7 | 15 | 13.5 | 30.6 | 0 | 50.6 | extremo | 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
- 7,324ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 28 Dec 2024 – 4 Jan 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Dec
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 250
- in a single hotspot: 52 MW
- Danger at start
- 57
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 220MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
28 Dec4 Jan
4 Jan 2025
How it evolved, day by day
29 Dec
1 Jan
3 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
37°high
45km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,676 ha in 2017, 408 ha in 2018, 1,099 ha in 2020, 2,794 ha in 2021, 4,875 ha in 2022, 554 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,180 ha that had burned before.
- 2,086 ha Missira fire, December 2022 10,707 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,810 ha Missira fire, January 2021 3,720 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 941 ha Missira fire, February 2021 16,597 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 908 ha Missira fire, February 2022 18,183 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 526 ha Missira fire, December 2023 4,141 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 380 ha Missira fire, December 2017 2,468 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 42 ha Missira fire, December 2021 6,472 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 started7,368 ha reached on 28 Dec0.9 %
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 2025Built-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 60 days without rain: 79 % of the area in Senegal
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Dec | 37.1 °C | 17 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 29 Dec | 37.4 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 30 Dec | 36.9 °C | 18 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 31 Dec | 35.4 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 1 Jan | 33.9 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 2 Jan | 33.4 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 3 Jan | 32.8 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 4 Jan | 32.5 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 5 Jan after | 33.4 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 6 Jan after | 35.6 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 7 Jan after | 36.6 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 8 Jan after | 37.3 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 9 Jan after | 37.6 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 10 Jan after | 37.0 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 11 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 12 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 13 Jan after | 36.0 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 14 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 57.3, a minimum humidity of 17% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 35.
FWI at the start
57.3
Minimum humidity
17 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Missira fire, 28 December 2024
7,324 ha
8 days
FWI 57.3
Min. humidity 17 %
Bandafassi fire, January 2018
2,424 ha
8 days
FWI 57.0
Min. humidity 18 %
29 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Bandafassi fire, January 2018
2,589 ha
4 days
FWI 57.3
Min. humidity 18 %
51 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Missira fire, March 2021
2,170 ha
7 days
FWI 58.0
Min. humidity 16 %
21 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Bandafassi fire, January 2020
31,378 ha
19 days
FWI 56.9
Min. humidity 16 %
37 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Bandafassi fire, January 2020
12,912 ha
12 days
FWI 57.8
Min. humidity 16 %
49 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 6 days
- median duration
- 2,633 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- —
- rain at the end (median; 0 of 35 had it)
It was 2.8 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 8 days, against 6 days.
Only 5 of its 35 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 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
45km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 4 Jan, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. None of its 35 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 21 Dec 2024
After · 11 Jan 2025
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 2 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 88 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 66: 4.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak88 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10386 µg/m³
Optical depth0.49
WHO 15
27 Dec29 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 · 250Every 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 · 20 km away
- 25,335 haBandafassi8 February 2026 · 21 days · 33 km away
- 21,620 haBandafassi14 January 2021 · 12 days · 35 km away
- 34,293 haBandafassi12 January 2023 · 10 days · 37 km away
- 31,378 haBandafassi2 January 2020 · 19 days · 37 km away
- 129,424 haMissira9 January 2026 · 51 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Missira fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 December 2024 to 4 January 2025 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 December 2024 to 2 January 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,324 hectares (73.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Missira (7,368 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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: 35. Their median duration was 6 days and their median area 2,633 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 5 of its 35 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 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 2 January 2025 → 4 January 2025.
- Start date: 29 December 2024 → 28 December 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
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 29 December 2024 to 2 January 2025. 250 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.
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.