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SN · Senegal · →

Ndorna fire, April 2018 Ndorna, Nianing

Out · last detection 9 Apr 2018, 14:30 UTC

The fire started on 4 April 2018 in Ndorna, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,462 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 45th largest in Kolda since 2016 (of 195 with a page). Number 7 in Senegal in 2018, of 30.

Burnt area
3,462ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
4 Apr 2018 – 9 Apr 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
4 Apr
2018
Heat detections
80
in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
745MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Apr 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Apr9 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

56789

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

The weather it burned in

44°high
42km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 507 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Ndorna where it started
    2,897 ha reached on 5 Apr
    1.3 %
  2. Nianing
    588 ha reached on 7 Apr
    0.4 %

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)
4 Apr 40.3 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Apr 43.5 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
6 Apr 42.2 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
7 Apr 40.7 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
8 Apr 39.9 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Apr 39.9 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Apr after 40.3 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
11 Apr after 41.9 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
12 Apr after 40.9 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
13 Apr after 41.0 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
14 Apr after 40.5 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Apr after 41.0 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Apr after 41.0 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Apr after 41.5 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
18 Apr after 40.4 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
19 Apr after 38.2 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Mar 2018
After · 16 Apr 2018

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 · 80Every 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 Ndorna fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 April 2018 and 9 April 2018: 6 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 3,462 hectares (34.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ndorna (2,897 ha, 1.3 %); Nianing (588 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 43.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 42 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.

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.