Nianing fire, April 2026 Nianing
The fire started on 3 April 2026 in Nianing, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,583 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 43th largest in Kolda since 2016 (of 195 with a page). Number 47 in Senegal in 2026, of 126.
- Burnt area
- 3,583ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 3 Apr 2026 – 7 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 3 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 78
- in a single hotspot: 48 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 795MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,457 ha in 2019, 1,041 ha in 2021, 1,173 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,129 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Nianing where it started3,603 ha reached on 2 Apr2.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Apr | 40.1 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 4 Apr | 39.5 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 5 Apr | 40.8 °C | 9 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 6 Apr | 41.5 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 7 Apr | 41.2 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 8 Apr after | 40.6 °C | 15 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 9 Apr after | 40.6 °C | 13 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 10 Apr after | 40.2 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 11 Apr after | 40.2 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 12 Apr after | 39.4 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 13 Apr after | 39.9 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 14 Apr after | 39.7 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 15 Apr after | 40.4 °C | 15 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 Apr after | 41.7 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 17 Apr after | 40.8 °C | 13 % | 27 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.
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 · CopernicusOn 1 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 84 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 78Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,663 haFafacourou5 February 2020 · 8 days · 15 km away
- 5,884 haFafacourouFebruary 2025 · 8 days · 15 km away
- 8,892 haFafacourou22 February 2021 · 12 days · 16 km away
- 6,251 haFafacourou2 March 2019 · 8 days · 17 km away
- 6,081 haNdornaFebruary 2019 · 4 days · 23 km away
- 21,167 haNdorna14 January 2026 · 15 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nianing fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 April 2026 and 7 April 2026: 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 3,583 hectares (35.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Nianing (3,603 ha, 2.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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
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.