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Ayamelum fire, February 2017 Ayamelum

Out · last detection 23 Feb 2017, 12:34 UTC

The fire started on 17 February 2017 in Ayamelum, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,943 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Anambra since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 66 in Nigeria in 2017, of 143.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.1 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
2,943ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
17 Feb 2017 – 23 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
17 Feb
2017
Heat detections
91
in a single hotspot: 21 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
558MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Feb23 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
32km/h · peak gust
2%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,492 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Ayamelum where it started
    2,963 ha reached on 14 Feb
    5.4 %

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)
17 Feb 38.7 °C 4 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Feb 37.5 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Feb 38.7 °C 2 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Feb 38.6 °C 8 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Feb 39.7 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Feb 40.1 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Feb 38.8 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Feb after 40.5 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Feb after 39.6 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 52
26 Feb after 36.9 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 42
27 Feb after 38.2 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
28 Feb after 38.1 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 46
1 Mar after 38.7 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Mar after 36.5 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
3 Mar after 38.7 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Mar after 39.0 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 46
5 Mar after 39.4 °C 32 % 42 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.

Before · 10 Feb 2017
After · 2 Mar 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 · 91Every 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 Ayamelum fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 February 2017 and 23 February 2017: 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 2,943 hectares (29.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ayamelum (2,963 ha, 5.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 2 % and gusts hit 32 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.