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Sandor fire, 29 January 2016 Sandor, Neya

Out · last detection 15 Feb 2016, 01:44 UTC

The fire started on 29 January 2016 in Sandor, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,648 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Eastern since 2016 (of 263 with a page). Number 13 in Sierra Leone in 2016, of 208.

Burnt area
3,648ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
29 Jan 2016 – 15 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
2
chiefdoms
Started on
29 Jan
2016
Heat detections
210
in a single hotspot: 55 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
987MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jan15 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

293031123456789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
54km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days 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. Sandor where it started
    2,139 ha reached on 29 Jan
    1.4 %
  2. Neya
    1,515 ha reached on 29 Jan
    1.0 %

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)
29 Jan 32.7 °C 15 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Jan 33.3 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
31 Jan 32.3 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Feb 34.0 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Feb 32.5 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Feb 33.5 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Feb 34.2 °C 18 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Feb 34.8 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Feb 35.5 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Feb 36.3 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Feb 34.5 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Feb 34.3 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Feb 34.7 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Feb 34.9 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Feb 35.4 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Feb 35.7 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Feb 34.2 °C 25 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Feb 34.7 °C 23 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Feb after 34.8 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Feb after 35.4 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Feb after 34.9 °C 23 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Feb after 34.2 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Feb after 35.2 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Feb after 37.3 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Feb after 34.4 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Feb after 34.7 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Feb after 35.2 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Feb after 36.0 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jan 2016
After · 22 Feb 2016

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 · 210Every 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 Sierra Leone ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sandor fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 January 2016 and 15 February 2016: 18 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 3,648 hectares (36.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sandor (2,139 ha, 1.4 %); Neya (1,515 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Sierra Leone (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 ADM3 (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.