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Anka fire, 9 December 2023 Anka

Out · last detection 15 Dec 2023, 12:24 UTC

The fire started on 9 December 2023 in Anka, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,780 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 59th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 42 in Nigeria in 2023, of 161.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,780ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
9 Dec 2023 – 15 Dec 2023
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
9 Dec
2023
Heat detections
102
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
498MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Dec 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Dec15 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

91011121315

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
46km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 648 ha in 2021, 720 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Anka where it started
    3,804 ha reached on 9 Dec
    1.5 %

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)
9 Dec 34.2 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Dec 34.8 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Dec 31.0 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Dec 30.0 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Dec 29.8 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Dec 31.4 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Dec 32.5 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Dec after 33.5 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Dec after 33.6 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Dec after 34.1 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Dec after 33.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Dec after 33.7 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Dec after 34.8 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Dec after 33.2 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Dec after 33.1 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Dec after 31.3 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Dec after 31.2 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Dec 2023
After · 22 Dec 2023

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 · 102Every 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 9 December 2023 and 15 December 2023: 7 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 3,780 hectares (37.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Anka (3,804 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.