AURSEEAursee
Wildfires in Southern
Detected · VIIRS 375 m · Suomi NPP, NOAA-20, NOAA-21 · last 24 hours · updated 2026-10-12 10:27 UTC
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Fire history, 2012–2025
Detected · VIIRS S-NPP 375 m · 0.01° cells (~1.1 km) · complete years 2012–2025 · built 2026-09-23
Between 2012 and 2025, VIIRS detected fire in 18,900 km² of Southern at least once. In an average year it detected fire in 9,440 km², ranking 2nd of 4 regions of Sierra Leone.
Year by year
Detected area per year, km². Area of 0.01° cells with at least one detection in the year.
The busiest year was 2015, with 11,920 km² detected; the quietest was 2021, with 7,070 km². The 2021–2025 average is 7.7% lower than the 2012–2016 average.
Through the year
Share of all fire-days 2012–2025 by month. A fire-day is one cell with a detection on one day.
February, March and April together hold 91% of the fire-days in the record. The single busiest day was 2 April 2025, with detections in 1,335 cells.
Ground that burns again
Of the 18,900 km² with at least one detection, 90% had detections in three or more different years.
| Years with a detection | km² | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 817 | 4.3% |
| 2 years | 1,010 | 5.3% |
| 3 to 5 years | 4,310 | 23% |
| 6 to 10 years | 10,200 | 54% |
| 11 years or more | 2,570 | 14% |
The half-degree square with the most fire-days is centred at 8.25, -11.75 and holds 19% of the region's fire-days.
The figures
Show the table
| Year | Detected km² | Fire-days |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 10,170 | 13,016 |
| 2013 | 9,450 | 11,309 |
| 2014 | 11,000 | 14,939 |
| 2015 | 11,920 | 16,471 |
| 2016 | 8,850 | 10,795 |
| 2017 | 7,660 | 8,343 |
| 2018 | 8,190 | 9,433 |
| 2019 | 9,560 | 11,533 |
| 2020 | 8,010 | 9,156 |
| 2021 | 7,070 | 7,832 |
| 2022 | 8,530 | 10,227 |
| 2023 | 10,020 | 12,391 |
| 2024 | 11,230 | 15,280 |
| 2025 | 10,570 | 13,408 |
Other regions of Sierra Leone
- Northern24,690 km² in an average year
- Eastern8,740 km² in an average year
- Western Area221 km² in an average year
- How these figures are madeDetected area, cells, and the single-satellite record.
Detected area counts every 0.01° cell with at least one VIIRS detection, so a small fire counts as a whole cell and a fire missed by cloud or between passes is absent. Borders: Natural Earth 1:10m. 2012 begins on 20 January.
Nearby regions
- Eastern55 km
- Northern124 km
- Western Area165 km
- Guéckédou Prefecture, Guinea174 km
- Grand Cape Mount, Liberia175 km
- Gbarpolu, Liberia199 km