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Anka fire, 25 November 2017 Anka, Maru

Out · last detection 30 Nov 2017, 13:26 UTC

The fire started on 25 November 2017 in Anka, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,875 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 55th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 31 in Nigeria in 2017, of 143.

Burnt area
3,875ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
25 Nov 2017 – 30 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
25 Nov
2017
Heat detections
111
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
828MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Nov30 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

252627282930

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

34°high
46km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 50 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 422 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 372 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Anka where it started
    2,279 ha reached on 25 Nov
    0.9 %
  2. Maru
    1,620 ha reached on 25 Nov
    0.2 %

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)
25 Nov 33.3 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Nov 33.3 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
27 Nov 32.9 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
28 Nov 33.4 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Nov 34.2 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Nov 33.6 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Dec after 34.0 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
2 Dec after 34.2 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Dec after 34.5 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Dec after 35.3 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Dec after 34.8 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
6 Dec after 33.4 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
7 Dec after 32.0 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Dec after 29.9 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Dec after 29.8 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Dec after 29.8 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 18 Nov 2017
After · 7 Dec 2017

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 · 111Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Nigeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Anka fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 November 2017 and 30 November 2017: 6 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 3,875 hectares (38.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Anka (2,279 ha, 0.9 %); Maru (1,620 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, class 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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.