Skip to content
worldfires
GM · Gambia · →

Upper Saloum fire, March 2023 Upper Saloum, Lower Saloum

Out · last detection 10 Mar 2023, 02:09 UTC

The fire started on 5 March 2023 in Upper Saloum, Gambia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,884 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Kuntaur since 2016 (of 37 with a page). Number 2 in Gambia in 2023, of 24.

Burnt area
2,884ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
5 Mar 2023 – 10 Mar 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
5 Mar
2023
Heat detections
33
in a single hotspot: 57 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
356MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Mar 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Mar10 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

78910

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
39km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 254 ha in 2016, 673 ha in 2017, 289 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,142 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Upper Saloum where it started
    2,081 ha reached on 7 Mar
    8.5 %
  2. Lower Saloum
    192 ha reached on 8 Mar
    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)
5 Mar 37.7 °C 22 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Mar 36.6 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Mar 41.1 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Mar 41.5 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
9 Mar 39.6 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Mar 40.8 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Mar after 41.0 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Mar after 40.5 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Mar after 39.7 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Mar after 39.7 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Mar after 36.3 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Mar after 35.3 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Mar after 37.1 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Mar after 39.2 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Mar after 38.8 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Mar after 38.4 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Feb 2023
After · 17 Mar 2023

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 · 33Every 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 Gambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Upper Saloum fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 March 2023 and 10 March 2023: 6 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 2,884 hectares (28.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Upper Saloum (2,081 ha, 8.5 %); Lower Saloum (192 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.

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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.