Abadam fire, 28 October 2019 Abadam
The fire started on 28 October 2019 in Abadam, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,753 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 7th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 457 with a page). The largest in Nigeria in 2019, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 27,753ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 28 Oct 2019 – 6 Nov 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 28 Oct
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 801
- in a single hotspot: 133 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.7GW
- 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 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 16,344 ha in 2016, 22,198 ha in 2017, 16,459 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 26,212 ha that had burned before.
- 14,318 ha Fouli fire, October 2017 42,926 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,985 ha Abadam fire, October 2017 39,930 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,706 ha Kaya fire, September 2016 57,635 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,718 ha Bosso fire, October 2018 22,697 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,642 ha Kukawa fire, October 2018 32,284 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,541 ha Abadam fire, October 2016 31,926 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,850 ha Abadam fire, November 2016 3,557 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 878 ha Abadam fire, October 2018 2,907 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Abadam where it started15,008 ha reached on 21 Oct3.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Oct | 35.9 °C | 14 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Oct | 37.6 °C | 6 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 30 Oct | 39.5 °C | 7 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 31 Oct | 38.1 °C | 6 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 1 Nov | 39.1 °C | 4 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 2 Nov | 39.9 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 3 Nov | 39.6 °C | 4 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 4 Nov | 40.6 °C | 3 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 87 |
| 5 Nov | 39.7 °C | 6 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 80 |
| 6 Nov | 38.8 °C | 3 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 7 Nov after | 40.0 °C | 3 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 8 Nov after | 40.6 °C | 3 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 76 |
| 9 Nov after | 40.2 °C | 7 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 83 |
| 10 Nov after | 39.5 °C | 8 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 80 |
| 11 Nov after | 38.6 °C | 7 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 12 Nov after | 39.6 °C | 7 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 13 Nov after | 40.6 °C | 6 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 14 Nov after | 38.8 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 15 Nov after | 38.7 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 16 Nov after | 39.1 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
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 · 801Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 42,926 haFouli2 October 2017 · 16 days · 7 km away
- 43,877 haAbadam8 October 2021 · 36 days · 9 km away
- 22,697 haBosso11 October 2018 · 13 days · 9 km away
- 31,926 haAbadamOctober 2016 · 34 days · 11 km away
- 57,635 haKaya27 September 2016 · 38 days · 12 km away
- 32,284 haKukawa12 October 2018 · 14 days · 16 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Abadam fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 October 2019 and 6 November 2019: 10 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 27,753 hectares (277.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Abadam (15,008 ha, 3.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.6 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 87, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Nigeria (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.
Emergency number: 112
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 International (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.