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Nianing fire, January 2026 Nianing

Out · last detection 31 Jan 2026, 14:24 UTC

The fire started on 27 January 2026 in Nianing, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,948 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 71th largest in Kolda since 2016 (of 195 with a page). Number 67 in Senegal in 2026, of 126.

The power measured by the satellite is low (17.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,948ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
27 Jan 2026 – 1 Feb 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
27 Jan
2026
Heat detections
55
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
229MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Jan 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Jan1 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

2728293031

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
19%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 327 ha in 2018, 1,561 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,664 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Nianing where it started
    2,965 ha reached on 27 Jan
    1.8 %

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)
27 Jan 35.3 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Jan 35.9 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Jan 36.1 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Jan 37.1 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Jan 37.3 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Feb 36.1 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Feb after 36.0 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
3 Feb after 36.7 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Feb after 33.4 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Feb after 33.7 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Feb after 32.2 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Feb after 37.1 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Feb after 36.2 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Feb after 37.6 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Feb after 36.9 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Feb after 37.3 °C 20 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jan 2026
After · 8 Feb 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 26 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 115 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 90: 6.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak115 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM10435 µg/m³
Optical depth0.54
252627282930311234
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 · 55Every 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 Nianing fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 January 2026 and 1 February 2026: 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 2,948 hectares (29.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Nianing (2,965 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very high.
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
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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.