Burned area
satellite only1,404ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 4 May 2024 – 6 May 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
GM · Gambia · –
Upper Fuladu West fire, May 2024 Upper Fuladu West
Out · last detection 6 May 2024, 03:17 UTC
The fire started on 4 May 2024 in Upper Fuladu West, Gambia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,404 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 17th largest in Kuntaur since 2016 (of 31 with a page). Number 11 in Gambia in 2024, of 22.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches 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 only3days
4 May 2024 to 6 May 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 6 May 2024, 03:17 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 only4 May 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 4 May 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only35
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 32 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 4 May 2024 – 6 May 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 only302MW
Total radiative power on 4 May 2024; hotspots that day: 25.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 4 May 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
model65.7FWI · extreme
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
- 4 May 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
model45.7°C · 13% RH
High of 45.7 °C and minimum humidity of 13% on 5 May 2024; gusts of 35 km/h on 5 May 2024.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 4 May 2024 – 6 May 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≈ 150people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 0.92 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
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 24 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
- 1,404 ha
- Dates
- 4 May 2024 – 6 May 2024
- Name
- Upper Fuladu West
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/upper-fuladu-west-2024-05?v=2026-10-24A 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 upper-fuladu-west-2024-05.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-05-04 | 25 | 302 | 45.2 | 28.1 | 14 | 19.2 | 34.2 | 0 | 65.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-05-05 | 8 | 105 | 45.7 | 27 | 13 | 20 | 35.3 | 0 | 67.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-05-06 | 2 | 3 | 44 | 26.2 | 14 | 18.1 | 30.6 | 0 | 64.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-05-07 | 0 | 0 | 42.2 | 26.3 | 22 | 20.4 | 35.3 | 0 | 61.8 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-05-08 | 0 | 0 | 40.9 | 26.1 | 23 | 17.2 | 28.4 | 0 | 55.3 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-05-09 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 27.7 | 33 | 16.6 | 34.6 | 0 | 45 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2024-05-10 | 0 | 0 | 41.5 | 28 | 27 | 18.1 | 39.2 | 0 | 46.8 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2024-05-11 | 0 | 0 | 41.7 | 26.8 | 26 | 16.1 | 31.3 | 0 | 45.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2024-05-12 | 0 | 0 | 42.3 | 27.6 | 22 | 18 | 31.7 | 0 | 51.1 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-05-13 | 0 | 0 | 42.2 | 26.8 | 25 | 19.4 | 32.8 | 0 | 52.9 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-05-14 | 0 | 0 | 41.2 | 26.8 | 26 | 19.4 | 38.5 | 0 | 53.2 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-05-15 | 0 | 0 | 38.5 | 26.5 | 29 | 20.5 | 38.2 | 0 | 52.2 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-05-16 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 24.9 | 29 | 14.4 | 31.7 | 0 | 44.9 | 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
- 1,404ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 4 May 2024 – 6 May 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 4 May
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 35
- in a single hotspot: 32 MW
- Danger at start
- 66
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 136MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
4 May6 May
6 May 2024
How it evolved, day by day
4 May
5 May
6 May
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
46°high
35km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
53% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 679 ha in 2017, 90 ha in 2023.
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
-
Upper Fuladu West where it started1,412 ha reached on 4 May3.0 %
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 area0.92 ha
Residents≈ 150
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.92 hectares of built-up land and about 150 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 Very dry air: 32 % of the area in Gambia 60 days without rain: 92 % of the area in Gambia
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 May | 45.2 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 5 May | 45.7 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 6 May | 44.0 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 7 May after | 42.2 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 8 May after | 40.9 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 9 May after | 38.0 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 May after | 41.5 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 11 May after | 41.7 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 May after | 42.3 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 13 May after | 42.2 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 14 May after | 41.2 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 15 May after | 38.5 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 May after | 38.0 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 65.7, a minimum humidity of 14% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.
FWI at the start
65.7
Minimum humidity
14 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Upper Fuladu West fire, May 2024
1,404 ha
3 days
FWI 65.7
Min. humidity 14 %
Sami fire, April 2023
1,928 ha
4 days
FWI 66.2
Min. humidity 13 %
22 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Fafacourou fire, March 2017
2,614 ha
6 days
FWI 63.9
Min. humidity 14 %
32 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Pakour fire, February 2019
4,828 ha
11 days
FWI 65.0
Min. humidity 13 %
80 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Upper Fuladu West fire, March 2017
1,928 ha
3 days
FWI 63.1
Min. humidity 15 %
1 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Sare Coly Sallé fire, February 2025
2,834 ha
3 days
FWI 68.2
Min. humidity 14 %
74 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 4 days
- median duration
- 2,320 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- —
- rain at the end (median; 0 of 19 had it)
It stayed below its twins: 1,404 ha against a median of 2,320 ha. It lasted 3 days, against 4 days.
In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.
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
35km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 6 May, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. None of its 19 twins had rain when they ended.
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 · 27 Apr 2024
After · 13 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 2 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 134 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 72: 4.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak134 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM10995 µg/m³
Optical depth0.81
WHO 15
2 May4 May6 May8 May
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 · 35Every 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
- 5,884 haFafacourouFebruary 2025 · 11 days · 29 km away
- 6,663 haFafacourou2 February 2020 · 11 days · 30 km away
- 6,251 haFafacourou2 March 2019 · 15 days · 30 km away
- 8,883 haFafacourou18 February 2021 · 17 days · 31 km away
- 8,867 haFafacourou24 February 2021 · 9 days · 32 km away
- 6,081 haNdornaFebruary 2019 · 6 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Upper Fuladu West fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 May 2024 and 6 May 2024: 3 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 1,404 hectares (14.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Upper Fuladu West (1,412 ha, 3.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 45.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Gambia (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: 19. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 2,320 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.
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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 35 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 ADM2 (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.