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Bakura fire, November 2019 Bakura, Tureta

Out · last detection 10 Dec 2019, 01:03 UTC

The fire started on 29 November 2019 in Bakura, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,575 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 5 in Nigeria in 2019, of 106.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.7 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
7,575ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
29 Nov 2019 – 10 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
29 Nov
2019
Heat detections
211
in a single hotspot: 30 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Dec 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Nov10 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

29301234568910

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
40km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 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: 722 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Bakura where it started
    6,690 ha reached on 29 Nov
    3.7 %
  2. Tureta
    935 ha reached on 30 Nov
    0.5 %

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)
29 Nov 35.5 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Nov 35.2 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Dec 35.1 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Dec 33.6 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Dec 33.2 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Dec 33.3 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Dec 34.5 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Dec 35.2 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Dec 34.0 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Dec 34.1 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Dec 34.2 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Dec 33.7 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Dec after 34.4 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Dec after 33.5 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Dec after 30.9 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Dec after 32.0 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Dec after 32.4 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Dec after 33.2 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Dec after 33.0 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Dec after 33.3 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Dec after 33.1 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Dec after 33.0 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Nov 2019
After · 17 Dec 2019

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 · 211Every 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 Bakura fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 November 2019 and 10 December 2019: 12 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 7,575 hectares (75.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bakura (6,690 ha, 3.7 %); Tureta (935 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.

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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.