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SN · Senegal · →

Sindian fire, February 2017 Sindian

Out · last detection 2 Mar 2017, 02:38 UTC

The fire started on 23 February 2017 in Sindian, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,749 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 7th largest in Ziguinchor since 2016 (of 40 with a page). Number 12 in Senegal in 2017, of 75.

Burnt area
3,749ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
23 Feb 2017 – 1 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
23 Feb
2017
Heat detections
108
in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
673MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Feb1 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

23242526272812

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
38km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 361 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Sindian where it started
    3,772 ha reached on 23 Feb
    2.6 %

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)
23 Feb 35.5 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Feb 36.7 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Feb 38.1 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Feb 38.1 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Feb 37.8 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Feb 37.5 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Mar 39.0 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Mar after 37.6 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Mar after 38.3 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Mar after 40.0 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Mar after 39.2 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Mar after 37.1 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Mar after 39.2 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Mar after 39.3 °C 18 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Mar after 38.9 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Mar after 39.3 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Mar after 38.1 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Feb 2017
After · 8 Mar 2017

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 · 108Every 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 Sindian fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 February 2017 and 1 March 2017: 7 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 3,749 hectares (37.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Sindian (3,772 ha, 2.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.