Anka fire, 21 November 2021 Anka
The fire started on 21 November 2021 in Anka, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,293 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 80th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 83 in Nigeria in 2021, of 184.
- Burnt area
- 3,293ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 21 Nov 2021 – 26 Nov 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 21 Nov
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 89
- in a single hotspot: 62 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 707MW
- 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 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,858 ha in 2016, 3,150 ha in 2017, 21 ha in 2018, 1,288 ha in 2019, 129 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,015 ha that had burned before.
- 1,294 ha Anka fire, November 2017 2,010 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 919 ha Anka fire, January 2017 4,556 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 814 ha Anka fire, February 2016 4,301 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 281 ha Anka fire, March 2019 2,156 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 129 ha Anka fire, December 2020 3,239 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 43 ha Anka fire, March 2019 3,258 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 21 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 started3,311 ha reached on 21 Nov1.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Nov | 34.9 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 22 Nov | 35.9 °C | 21 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Nov | 36.0 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Nov | 36.3 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 25 Nov | 36.3 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 26 Nov | 35.5 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 27 Nov after | 35.7 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 28 Nov after | 35.5 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Nov after | 35.2 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 30 Nov after | 35.2 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 1 Dec after | 34.5 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 2 Dec after | 33.7 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 3 Dec after | 32.6 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 4 Dec after | 33.3 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 5 Dec after | 33.5 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 6 Dec after | 34.0 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
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 · 89Every 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 21 November 2021 and 26 November 2021: 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 3,293 hectares (32.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Anka (3,311 ha, 1.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
- 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.