Anka fire, 22 March 2019 Anka
The fire started on 22 March 2019 in Anka, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,258 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 81th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 31 in Nigeria in 2019, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 3,258ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 22 Mar 2019 – 25 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 22 Mar
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 82
- in a single hotspot: 88 MW
- Danger at start
- 53
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 893MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 291 ha in 2016, 1,570 ha in 2017, 442 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,675 ha that had burned before.
- 990 ha Anka fire, January 2017 4,556 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 406 ha Anka fire, January 2018 3,367 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 251 ha Anka fire, November 2017 2,010 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 138 ha Anka fire, February 2016 4,301 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 94 ha Anka fire, November 2017 3,875 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 35 ha Anka fire, December 2018 4,680 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Anka where it started3,277 ha reached on 22 Mar1.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Mar | 39.3 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 23 Mar | 39.9 °C | 10 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 24 Mar | 39.1 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 25 Mar | 38.5 °C | 6 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 26 Mar after | 37.7 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 27 Mar after | 39.8 °C | 9 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 28 Mar after | 39.6 °C | 12 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 29 Mar after | 40.5 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 30 Mar after | 40.4 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 31 Mar after | 39.3 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 1 Apr after | 40.3 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 2 Apr after | 40.9 °C | 12 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 3 Apr after | 41.1 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 4 Apr after | 41.8 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
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 · 82Every 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 Anka fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 March 2019 and 25 March 2019: 4 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 3,258 hectares (32.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Anka (3,277 ha, 1.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.9 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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
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.