Upper Saloum fire, January 2025 Lower Saloum, Upper Saloum
The fire started on 30 January 2025 in Upper Saloum, Gambia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,110 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Kuntaur since 2016 (of 37 with a page). The largest in Gambia in 2025, of 18.
- Burnt area
- 4,110ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 30 Jan 2025 – 2 Feb 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 30 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 100
- in a single hotspot: 67 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,340 ha in 2016, 1,755 ha in 2021, 543 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,413 ha that had burned before.
- 1,340 ha Katakel fire, April 2016 2,869 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 889 ha Lower Saloum fire, February 2021 1,051 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 543 ha Upper Saloum fire, March 2023 2,884 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
2,429 ha reached on 31 Jan13 %
-
Upper Saloum where it started847 ha reached on 30 Jan3.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Jan | 37.8 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 31 Jan | 34.9 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 1 Feb | 33.0 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 2 Feb | 30.9 °C | 18 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 3 Feb after | 30.9 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 4 Feb after | 31.6 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 5 Feb after | 32.6 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 6 Feb after | 34.0 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 7 Feb after | 33.8 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 8 Feb after | 33.6 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 9 Feb after | 36.6 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 10 Feb after | 35.6 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Feb after | 37.3 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 12 Feb after | 36.9 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 98 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 84: 5.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 100Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Upper Saloum fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 January 2025 and 2 February 2025: 4 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 4,110 hectares (41.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lower Saloum (2,429 ha, 13 %); Upper Saloum (847 ha, 3.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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
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.