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Ndorna fire, December 2019 Ndorna, Nianing

Out · last detection 6 Jan 2020, 13:46 UTC

The fire started on 30 December 2019 in Ndorna, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,685 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in Kolda since 2016 (of 195 with a page). Number 7 in Senegal in 2019, of 57.

Burnt area
5,685ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
30 Dec 2019 – 6 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
30 Dec
2019
Heat detections
177
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Jan 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Dec6 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

3031123456

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
41km/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

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 509 ha in 2016, 1,717 ha in 2017, 810 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,264 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ndorna where it started
    2,962 ha reached on 23 Dec
    1.4 %
  2. Nianing
    2,757 ha reached on 23 Dec
    1.6 %

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)
30 Dec 35.1 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Dec 34.4 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Jan 32.9 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Jan 32.6 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Jan 32.3 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Jan 31.9 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Jan 31.6 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Jan 31.3 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Jan after 30.7 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Jan after 31.9 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Jan after 32.1 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
10 Jan after 32.0 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Jan after 33.8 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Jan after 33.9 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Jan after 34.2 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Jan after 33.2 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Jan after 33.3 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Jan after 34.7 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Dec 2019
After · 13 Jan 2020

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 · 177Every 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 30 December 2019 and 6 January 2020: 8 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 5,685 hectares (56.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ndorna (2,962 ha, 1.4 %); Nianing (2,757 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.