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GM · Gambia · →

Niani fire, March 2019 Niani

Out · last detection 8 Mar 2019, 02:38 UTC

The fire started on 4 March 2019 in Niani, Gambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,894 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 3th largest in Kuntaur since 2016 (of 37 with a page). Number 2 in Gambia in 2019, of 16.

Burnt area
2,894ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
4 Mar 2019 – 8 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
4 Mar
2019
Heat detections
101
in a single hotspot: 35 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
477MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Mar8 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

45678

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
39km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Niani where it started
    2,911 ha reached on 4 Mar
    6.6 %

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)
4 Mar 36.8 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Mar 38.5 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Mar 39.1 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
7 Mar 38.4 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
8 Mar 37.9 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
9 Mar after 37.7 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
10 Mar after 38.8 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Mar after 40.6 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
12 Mar after 39.2 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
13 Mar after 38.9 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
14 Mar after 39.4 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
15 Mar after 40.4 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
16 Mar after 40.9 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Mar after 41.1 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Mar after 41.5 °C 11 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Feb 2019
After · 15 Mar 2019

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 · 101Every 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 Gambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Niani fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 March 2019 and 8 March 2019: 5 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 2,894 hectares (28.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Niani (2,911 ha, 6.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Gambia (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.

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.

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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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.