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Boki fire, February 2016 Boki, Obudu

Out · last detection 14 Feb 2016, 13:07 UTC

The fire started on 5 February 2016 in Boki, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,728 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Cross River since 2016 (of 37 with a page). Number 48 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.4 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
3,728ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
5 Feb 2016 – 13 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
5 Feb
2016
Heat detections
177
in a single hotspot: 24 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
498MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Feb13 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
33km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Boki where it started
    3,351 ha reached on 1 Feb
    1.2 %
  2. Obudu
    402 ha reached on 2 Feb
    0.9 %

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)
5 Feb 33.4 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Feb 33.1 °C 11 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Feb 33.3 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Feb 31.0 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Feb 32.0 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Feb 32.0 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Feb 32.7 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Feb 30.6 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Feb 31.6 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Feb after 31.8 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
15 Feb after 33.1 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Feb after 33.7 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Feb after 34.1 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Feb after 33.5 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
19 Feb after 33.1 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
20 Feb after 34.3 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
21 Feb after 34.6 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Feb after 34.4 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
23 Feb after 34.8 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jan 2016
After · 20 Feb 2016

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 · 177Every 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 Boki fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 February 2016 and 13 February 2016: 9 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 3,728 hectares (37.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Boki (3,351 ha, 1.2 %); Obudu (402 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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
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.