Valunia fire, 3 March 2019 Valunia, Kamajei, Gbonkolenken
The fire started on 3 March 2019 in Valunia, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,934 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Southern since 2016 (of 393 with a page). Number 3 in Sierra Leone in 2019, of 180.
- Burnt area
- 7,934ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 3 Mar 2019 – 21 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 3 Mar
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 292
- in a single hotspot: 191 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.9GW
- 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 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.1 mm on 22 Mar.
This area had burned before
6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 502 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Valunia where it started4,919 ha reached on 1 Mar5.9 %
-
2,170 ha reached on 11 Mar4.8 %
-
896 ha reached on 4 Mar1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Mar | 38.3 °C | 14 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 4 Mar | 37.9 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 5 Mar | 38.0 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Mar | 39.4 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Mar | 39.0 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Mar | 37.8 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Mar | 37.8 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 10 Mar | 36.7 °C | 33 % | 25 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Mar | 37.8 °C | 35 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Mar | 37.4 °C | 35 % | 28 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Mar | 39.5 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 14 Mar | 38.8 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 15 Mar | 38.5 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 16 Mar | 39.0 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Mar | 39.7 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 18 Mar | 38.0 °C | 38 % | 34 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 37 |
| 19 Mar | 38.3 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 3.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 20 Mar | 34.6 °C | 54 % | 28 km/h | 10.7 mm | Very low 4 |
| 21 Mar | 36.5 °C | 49 % | 38 km/h | 12.5 mm | Very low 3 |
| 22 Mar after | 28.9 °C | 76 % | 22 km/h | 8.1 mm | Very low 0 |
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.
Detections table · 292Every 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 Valunia fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 March 2019 and 21 March 2019: 19 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 7,934 hectares (79.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Valunia (4,919 ha, 5.9 %); Kamajei (2,170 ha, 4.8 %); Gbonkolenken (896 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
- 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
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 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.