Burned area
satellite only1,746ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 20 Apr 2024 – 30 Apr 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
SL · Sierra Leone · –
Tonko Limba fire, 20 April 2024 Tonko Limba, Bramaia
Out · last detection 30 Apr 2024, 14:36 UTC
The fire started on 20 April 2024 in Tonko Limba, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,746 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 244th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 937 with a page). Number 21 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 only11days
20 Apr 2024 to 30 Apr 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 30 Apr 2024, 14:36 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 only20 Apr 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 20 Apr 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only63
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 176 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 20 Apr 2024 – 30 Apr 2024
+− 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 only951MW
Total radiative power on 23 April 2024; hotspots that day: 15.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 23 Apr 2024
+− 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
model16.4FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 20 Apr 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
model39.1°C · 30% RH
High of 39.1 °C and minimum humidity of 30% on 24 April 2024; gusts of 41 km/h on 26 April 2024.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 20 Apr 2024 – 30 Apr 2024
- 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.
Living inside
model≈ 700people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 2.4 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2025).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
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.
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: 27 April 2024 → 30 April 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
- 1,746 ha
- Dates
- 20 Apr 2024 – 30 Apr 2024
- Name
- Tonko Limba
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/tonko-limba-2024-04-3?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 tonko-limba-2024-04-3.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-04-20 | 18 | 766 | 34.4 | 26.9 | 57 | 16.9 | 37.8 | 1.6 | 16.4 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-04-21 | 0 | 0 | 33.7 | 25.6 | 55 | 17.8 | 40 | 3.9 | 8.6 | bajo | 1 |
| 2024-04-22 | 0 | 0 | 35.1 | 24.8 | 50 | 12.6 | 34.2 | 0.2 | 17.8 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-04-23 | 15 | 951 | 37.4 | 24.1 | 35 | 16.5 | 36.4 | 0 | 31.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-04-24 | 3 | 16 | 39.1 | 24.5 | 30 | 18.1 | 38.2 | 0 | 37.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-04-25 | 11 | 632 | 37 | 24.5 | 35 | 17.9 | 38.9 | 0 | 37.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-04-26 | 0 | 0 | 36.8 | 23.7 | 29 | 17.2 | 41.4 | 0 | 37.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-04-27 | 11 | 149 | 38.9 | 24 | 34 | 16.8 | 40.3 | 0 | 37.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-04-28 | 4 | 14 | 37.6 | 25 | 35 | 14 | 37.4 | 0 | 35.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-04-29 | 0 | 0 | 37.9 | 24.7 | 38 | 16.4 | 36.7 | 0.1 | 37.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-04-30 | 1 | 2 | 36.8 | 26.6 | 40 | 18.1 | 36.7 | 0.3 | 37.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-05-01 | 0 | 0 | 38.4 | 26.1 | 38 | 17.6 | 39.2 | 0.4 | 37.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-05-02 | 0 | 0 | 37.7 | 26.4 | 38 | 19 | 41.8 | 0.2 | 39 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2024-05-03 | 0 | 0 | 38.5 | 26.6 | 37 | 16.7 | 37.4 | 0.4 | 37.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-05-04 | 0 | 0 | 36.5 | 26.2 | 48 | 13.8 | 29.9 | 0.5 | 30.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-05-05 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 26.7 | 46 | 15.5 | 34.2 | 0.4 | 31.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-05-06 | 0 | 0 | 33.9 | 26.2 | 59 | 15.1 | 36.4 | 1.9 | 12.2 | moderado | 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
- 1,746ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 20 Apr 2024 – 30 Apr 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 20 Apr
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 63
- in a single hotspot: 176 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 361MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
20 Apr30 Apr
30 Apr 2024
How it evolved, day by day
23 Apr
27 Apr
30 Apr
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
41km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 6 May.
This area had burned before
59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 139 ha in 2016, 244 ha in 2017, 680 ha in 2022.
- 680 ha Tonko Limba fire, April 2022 1,479 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 241 ha Bramaia fire, April 2017 1,204 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 139 ha Bramaia fire, April 2016 1,830 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3 ha Tonko Limba fire, April 2017 1,925 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
-
Tonko Limba where it started1,584 ha reached on 20 Apr1.8 %
-
174 ha reached on 23 Apr0.3 %
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 area2.4 ha
Residents≈ 700
Inside the perimeter there were about 2.4 hectares of built-up land and about 700 residents (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 60 days without rain: 15 % of the area in Sierra Leone
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Apr | 34.4 °C | 57 % | 38 km/h | 1.6 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 21 Apr | 33.7 °C | 55 % | 40 km/h | 3.9 mm | Low 9 |
| 22 Apr | 35.1 °C | 50 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 23 Apr | 37.4 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 24 Apr | 39.1 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 25 Apr | 37.0 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 26 Apr | 36.8 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 27 Apr | 38.9 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 28 Apr | 37.6 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Apr | 37.9 °C | 38 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Apr | 36.8 °C | 40 % | 37 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 37 |
| 1 May after | 38.4 °C | 38 % | 39 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 37 |
| 2 May after | 37.7 °C | 38 % | 42 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 39 |
| 3 May after | 38.5 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 37 |
| 4 May after | 36.5 °C | 48 % | 30 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 30 |
| 5 May after | 37.0 °C | 46 % | 34 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 32 |
| 6 May after | 33.9 °C | 59 % | 36 km/h | 1.9 mm | Moderate 12 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 16.4, a minimum humidity of 57% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 9.
FWI at the start
16.4
Minimum humidity
57 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Tonko Limba fire, 20 April 2024
1,746 ha
11 days
FWI 16.4
Min. humidity 57 %
Douprou fire, May 2023
2,236 ha
13 days
FWI 20.3
Min. humidity 56 %
213 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.5 mm on 25 May.
Lower Banta fire, March 2025
1,428 ha
3 days
FWI 21.6
Min. humidity 56 %
167 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.5 mm on 24 Mar.
Bintimodia fire, May 2017
2,182 ha
1 day
FWI 9.5
Min. humidity 54 %
224 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.9 mm on 8 May.
Timdale fire, March 2025
1,058 ha
8 days
FWI 21.8
Min. humidity 52 %
169 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.3 mm on 29 Mar.
Magbema fire, April 2023
2,034 ha
13 days
FWI 15.3
Min. humidity 58 %
21 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.8 mm on 2 May.
What happened to them
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 9. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
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
1.9 mmfirst rain
6 May6 days after it ended
41km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 30 Apr, and on 6 May 1.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out.
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 · 13 Apr 2024
After · 7 May 2024
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 22 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 101 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 65: 4.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak101 µg/m³
Days over the guideline13 days
PM10155 µg/m³
Optical depth1.90
WHO 15
18 Apr21 Apr24 Apr27 Apr30 Apr
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 · 63Every 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
- 9,313 haTonko Limba12 April 2026 · 21 days · 6 km away
- 4,408 haTonko Limba23 April 2022 · 9 days · 13 km away
- 4,216 haKaliahMarch 2021 · 15 days · 27 km away
- 5,988 haMoussayah14 April 2017 · 14 days · 30 km away
- 4,270 haMoussayahApril 2024 · 15 days · 31 km away
- 4,890 haBramaia15 January 2026 · 18 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Tonko Limba fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 April 2024 to 30 April 2024 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 April 2024 to 27 April 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,746 hectares (17.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tonko Limba (1,584 ha, 1.8 %); Bramaia (174 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class 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
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 27 April 2024 → 30 April 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 20 April 2024 to 27 April 2024. 63 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.