Burned area
satellite only1,850ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 26 Dec 2024 – 9 Jan 2025
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
SL · Sierra Leone · –
Tambakha fire, December 2024 Tambakha
Out · last detection 7 Jan 2025, 14:11 UTC
The fire started on 26 December 2024 in Tambakha, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,850 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 214th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 937 with a page). Number 15 in Sierra Leone in 2024, of 140.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-27matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only15days
26 Dec 2024 to 9 Jan 2025: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 7 Jan 2025, 14:11 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only26 Dec 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 26 Dec 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only62
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 43 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 26 Dec 2024 – 9 Jan 2025
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only111MW
Total radiative power on 3 January 2025; hotspots that day: 6.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 3 Jan 2025
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model45.7FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 40.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 26 Dec 2024, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model38.3°C · 15% RH
High of 38.3 °C and minimum humidity of 15% on 7 January 2025; gusts of 32 km/h on 8 January 2025.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 26 Dec 2024 – 9 Jan 2025
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 3 January 2025 → 9 January 2025.
-
logStart date: 29 December 2024 → 26 December 2024.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 27 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 1,850 ha
- Dates
- 26 Dec 2024 – 9 Jan 2025
- Name
- Tambakha
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/tambakha-2024-12?v=2026-10-27A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire tambakha-2024-12.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-12-26 | 1 | 4 | 37.5 | 20.1 | 13 | 11.2 | 30.2 | 0 | 45.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-12-27 | 2 | 17 | 37 | 19.8 | 16 | 7.8 | 22.3 | 0 | 42.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-12-28 | 0 | 0 | 37.1 | 19.2 | 13 | 9.9 | 27 | 0 | 45.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-12-29 | 9 | 108 | 37.2 | 18 | 12 | 9.8 | 28.4 | 0 | 45.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-12-30 | 7 | 26 | 37.2 | 19.3 | 13 | 8.7 | 26.3 | 0 | 44.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-12-31 | 15 | 50 | 37.4 | 19.1 | 15 | 9.5 | 27 | 0 | 46.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-01 | 7 | 32 | 37.6 | 19.4 | 12 | 11.4 | 31.3 | 0 | 48.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-02 | 4 | 31 | 37.2 | 18.8 | 15 | 8.8 | 25.2 | 0 | 45.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-03 | 6 | 111 | 36.8 | 19.8 | 14 | 12.1 | 31 | 0 | 49.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-04 | 2 | 7 | 37.4 | 18.2 | 16 | 8 | 24.1 | 0 | 45.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-05 | 1 | 5 | 36.9 | 19.9 | 18 | 8.6 | 25.2 | 0 | 45.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-06 | 7 | 24 | 36.6 | 21.4 | 25 | 7.8 | 18.4 | 0 | 40.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-07 | 1 | 25 | 38.3 | 20.7 | 15 | 11.3 | 26.3 | 0 | 46.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-08 | 0 | 0 | 37.7 | 21.9 | 16 | 12.6 | 32 | 0 | 47.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-09 | 0 | 0 | 37.4 | 19.6 | 18 | 9.8 | 27 | 0 | 45.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-10 | 0 | 0 | 35.3 | 22.2 | 16 | 13 | 32.8 | 0 | 48.8 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-01-11 | 0 | 0 | 33.6 | 19.9 | 19 | 9.1 | 23 | 0 | 43.7 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-01-12 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 21.5 | 26 | 6.8 | 13.3 | 0 | 36.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2025-01-13 | 0 | 0 | 36.6 | 18.2 | 14 | 7.4 | 17.3 | 0 | 41.8 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-01-14 | 0 | 0 | 36.8 | 19.9 | 21 | 9.4 | 17.3 | 0 | 44 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-01-15 | 0 | 0 | 38.2 | 22.2 | 24 | 10.2 | 19.4 | 0 | 44.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-01-16 | 0 | 0 | 36.1 | 23.2 | 27 | 9.2 | 27.7 | 0 | 40.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-01-17 | 0 | 0 | 30.6 | 24.7 | 33 | 9.4 | 21.6 | 0.2 | 34.3 | alto | 0 |
| 2025-01-18 | 0 | 0 | 32.1 | 23 | 29 | 11 | 20.5 | 0.1 | 35.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2025-01-19 | 0 | 0 | 37.6 | 20.5 | 17 | 8.2 | 24.8 | 0 | 40.7 | muy_alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 1,850ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 26 Dec 2024 – 9 Jan 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 26 Dec
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 62
- in a single hotspot: 43 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 37MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
26 Dec9 Jan
7 Jan 2025
How it evolved, day by day
26 Dec
30 Dec
3 Jan
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
38°high
32km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity
It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 243 ha in 2016, 374 ha in 2017, 1,273 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,495 ha that had burned before.
- 1,273 ha Tambakha fire, January 2022 1,726 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 374 ha Tambakha fire, January 2017 1,172 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 223 ha Tambakha fire, January 2016 1,412 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 19 ha Tambakha fire, January 2016 1,329 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Tambakha where it started1,862 ha reached on 26 Dec0.8 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with Very dry air: 13 % of the area in Sierra Leone
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Dec | 37.5 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 27 Dec | 37.0 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 28 Dec | 37.1 °C | 13 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 29 Dec | 37.2 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 30 Dec | 37.2 °C | 13 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 31 Dec | 37.4 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 1 Jan | 37.6 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 2 Jan | 37.2 °C | 15 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Jan | 36.8 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 4 Jan | 37.4 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 5 Jan | 36.9 °C | 18 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 6 Jan | 36.6 °C | 25 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 7 Jan | 38.3 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Jan | 37.7 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 9 Jan | 37.4 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Jan after | 35.3 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 11 Jan after | 33.6 °C | 19 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 12 Jan after | 31.0 °C | 26 % | 13 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Jan after | 36.6 °C | 14 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 14 Jan after | 36.8 °C | 21 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 15 Jan after | 38.2 °C | 24 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Jan after | 36.1 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Jan after | 30.6 °C | 33 % | 22 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Jan after | 32.1 °C | 29 % | 20 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Jan after | 37.6 °C | 17 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 45.7, a minimum humidity of 13% and 40 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 27.
FWI at the start
45.7
Minimum humidity
13 %
Days without rain
40
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Tambakha fire, December 2024
1,850 ha
15 days
FWI 45.7
Min. humidity 13 %
Kasunko fire, January 2022
1,288 ha
9 days
FWI 45.5
Min. humidity 13 %
78 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Kasunko fire, January 2022
2,163 ha
9 days
FWI 45.5
Min. humidity 13 %
85 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Sengbe fire, January 2019
1,424 ha
8 days
FWI 46.0
Min. humidity 12 %
111 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mongo fire, January 2018
1,196 ha
6 days
FWI 44.6
Min. humidity 13 %
158 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.8 mm on 4 Feb.
Wara Wara Bafod fire, January 2024
1,121 ha
8 days
FWI 45.1
Min. humidity 13 %
57 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 7 days
- median duration
- 1,296 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 3.5 mm
- rain at the end (median; 3 of 27 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (1,850 ha against a median of 1,296 ha) and lasted 15 days, against 7 days.
In 24 of 27, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.5 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
32km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 9 Jan, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 3 of 27, with a median of 3.5 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 19 Dec 2024
After · 16 Jan 2025
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 3 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 88 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 60: 4.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak88 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM10140 µg/m³
Optical depth0.52
WHO 15
27 Dec30 Dec2 Jan5 Jan
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 · 62Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Tambakha fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 December 2024 to 9 January 2025 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 December 2024 to 3 January 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,850 hectares (18.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Tambakha (1,862 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 27. Their median duration was 7 days and their median area 1,296 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 24 of 27, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.5 mm.
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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 3 January 2025 → 9 January 2025.
- Start date: 29 December 2024 → 26 December 2024.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 29 December 2024 to 3 January 2025. 62 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.