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Missira fire, 10 January 2026 Bandafassi, Missira, Dar Salam

Out · last detection 28 Feb 2026, 02:51 UTC

The fire started on 10 January 2026 in Missira, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 50 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 131,818 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the largest fire in Tambacounda since 2016 (of 291 with a page). The largest in Senegal in 2026, of 125.

Burnt area
131,818ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
50days
10 Jan 2026 – 28 Feb 2026
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
10 Jan
2026
Heat detections
3,643
in a single hotspot: 249 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
31.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Feb 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jan28 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

1011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
44km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 50,646 ha in 2016, 49,355 ha in 2017, 12,968 ha in 2018, 18,773 ha in 2019, 49,877 ha in 2020, 50,260 ha in 2021, 50,034 ha in 2022, 57,163 ha in 2023, 53,076 ha in 2024, 34,501 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 119,978 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bandafassi
    93,581 ha reached on 16 Jan
    16 %
  2. Missira where it started
    38,738 ha reached on 10 Jan
    4.6 %
  3. Dar Salam
    341 ha reached on 16 Jan
    0.3 %

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)
10 Jan 35.1 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Jan 37.0 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Jan 36.5 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Jan 36.8 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Jan 37.1 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Jan 37.1 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Jan 37.8 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Jan 37.4 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Jan 35.2 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Jan 34.4 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Jan 32.6 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Jan 33.2 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Jan 32.3 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Jan 35.3 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Jan 35.8 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Jan 32.3 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Jan 35.0 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Jan 36.2 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Jan 37.3 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Jan 38.0 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Jan 38.8 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
31 Jan 39.2 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Feb 37.2 °C 14 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Feb 38.0 °C 19 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Feb 39.1 °C 16 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Feb 31.3 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Feb 35.9 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Feb 37.1 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Feb 39.7 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Feb 38.0 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Feb 38.4 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
10 Feb 38.6 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Feb 39.4 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Feb 39.8 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Feb 41.0 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Feb 38.7 °C 18 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
15 Feb 39.3 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Feb 38.3 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Feb 38.3 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Feb 38.4 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Feb 39.7 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 Feb 39.3 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Feb 39.2 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Feb 40.0 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Feb 38.9 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Feb 38.2 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Feb 38.6 °C 19 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Feb 39.2 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Feb 37.2 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Feb 33.5 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Mar after 34.2 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Mar after 34.5 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Mar after 36.3 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Mar after 37.0 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Mar after 38.3 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Mar after 38.9 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Mar after 39.6 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Mar after 40.9 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Mar after 41.3 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Mar after 41.4 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Jan 2026
After · 7 Mar 2026

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 16 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 157 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 100: 6.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak157 µg/m³
Days over the guideline55 days
PM10572 µg/m³
Optical depth0.88
891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728123
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 · 3,643Every 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 10 January 2026 and 28 February 2026: 50 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 131,818 hectares (1,318.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bandafassi (93,581 ha, 16 %); Missira (38,738 ha, 4.6 %); Dar Salam (341 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.