Valunia fire, 16 March 2023 Valunia, Gbonkolenken
The fire started on 16 March 2023 in Valunia, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,670 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 53th largest in Southern since 2016 (of 393 with a page). Number 17 in Sierra Leone in 2023, of 160.
- Burnt area
- 2,670ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 16 Mar 2023 – 23 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 16 Mar
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 78
- in a single hotspot: 164 MW
- Danger at start
- 11
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.5 mm on 29 Mar.
This area had burned before
76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 770 ha in 2016, 1,348 ha in 2019, 284 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,028 ha that had burned before.
- 1,348 ha Valunia fire, March 2019 7,934 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 770 ha Valunia fire, March 2016 1,858 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 276 ha Kamajei fire, March 2022 3,846 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8 ha Valunia fire, April 2022 1,213 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Valunia where it started2,638 ha reached on 12 Mar3.2 %
-
49 ha0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Mar | 35.8 °C | 49 % | 28 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 17 Mar | 36.2 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 18 Mar | 35.6 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 19 Mar | 35.7 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 20 Mar | 35.9 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 21 Mar | 36.2 °C | 42 % | 29 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 25 |
| 22 Mar | 33.0 °C | 51 % | 36 km/h | 7.3 mm | Very low 4 |
| 23 Mar | 31.9 °C | 65 % | 28 km/h | 1.7 mm | Very low 3 |
| 24 Mar after | 34.4 °C | 43 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 25 Mar after | 36.8 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Mar after | 36.9 °C | 38 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 27 Mar after | 36.5 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Mar after | 37.1 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 29 Mar after | 30.7 °C | 66 % | 28 km/h | 9.5 mm | Very low 1 |
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 · 78Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,934 haValunia3 March 2019 · 19 days · 3 km away
- 6,967 haKamajei16 March 2026 · 22 days · 10 km away
- 20,541 haNiawa LengaMarch 2026 · 14 days · 11 km away
- 5,572 haValunia14 March 2026 · 8 days · 22 km away
- 7,099 haValunia27 March 2016 · 14 days · 24 km away
- 7,300 haTikonko28 March 2026 · 11 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Valunia fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 March 2023 and 23 March 2023: 8 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 2,670 hectares (26.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Valunia (2,638 ha, 3.2 %); Gbonkolenken (49 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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
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.