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Borgu fire, 16 November 2016 Borgu

Out · last detection 26 Nov 2016, 13:45 UTC

The fire started on 16 November 2016 in Borgu, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,637 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 41th largest in Niger since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 9 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

Burnt area
7,637ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
16 Nov 2016 – 25 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
16 Nov
2016
Heat detections
265
in a single hotspot: 80 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Nov25 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
30km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 39 days 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. Borgu where it started
    7,680 ha reached on 9 Nov
    0.7 %

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)
16 Nov 35.9 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Nov 35.3 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Nov 35.2 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Nov 36.1 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Nov 36.7 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Nov 35.7 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Nov 34.8 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Nov 36.3 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Nov 37.2 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Nov 37.0 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Nov after 36.7 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Nov after 36.2 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Nov after 36.5 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Nov after 36.9 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Nov after 36.3 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Dec after 36.4 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Dec after 35.1 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 Dec after 35.6 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Dec after 34.8 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Dec after 33.4 °C 23 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Nov 2016
After · 2 Dec 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 · 265Every 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 Borgu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 November 2016 and 25 November 2016: 10 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 7,637 hectares (76.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Borgu (7,680 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.