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Nianija fire, January 2018 Nianija, Niani, Niamina East

Out · last detection 26 Jan 2018, 13:59 UTC

The fire started on 24 January 2018 in Nianija, Gambia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,953 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Kuntaur since 2016 (of 37 with a page). Number 2 in Gambia in 2018, of 16.

Burnt area
2,953ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
24 Jan 2018 – 26 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
24 Jan
2018
Heat detections
79
in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
436MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jan26 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

242526

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
36km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 679 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Nianija where it started
    2,026 ha reached on 24 Jan
    15 %
  2. Niani
    939 ha reached on 24 Jan
    2.1 %
  3. Niamina East
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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)
24 Jan 36.6 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Jan 36.3 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Jan 35.3 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Jan after 32.9 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Jan after 32.1 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Jan after 34.0 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Jan after 32.2 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Jan after 32.7 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Feb after 30.7 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Feb after 28.5 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Feb after 31.3 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Feb after 32.9 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Feb after 29.3 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jan 2018
After · 2 Feb 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 · 79Every 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 Nianija fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 January 2018 and 26 January 2018: 3 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 2,953 hectares (29.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Nianija (2,026 ha, 15 %); Niani (939 ha, 2.1 %); Niamina East (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.