Bosso fire, 11 October 2018 Bosso
The fire started on 11 October 2018 in Bosso, Niger, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,697 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the largest fire in Diffa since 2016 (of 61 with a page). The largest in Niger in 2018, of 19.
- Burnt area
- 22,697ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 11 Oct 2018 – 23 Oct 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 11 Oct
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 378
- in a single hotspot: 190 MW
- Danger at start
- 51
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.2GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 26 Oct.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,404 ha in 2016, 17,194 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 20,242 ha that had burned before.
- 17,194 ha Fouli fire, October 2017 42,926 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,353 ha Abadam fire, November 2016 3,557 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,229 ha Fouli fire, October 2016 2,280 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,188 ha Bosso fire, November 2016 1,350 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 898 ha Bosso fire, October 2016 1,230 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 892 ha Bosso fire, October 2016 1,432 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 877 ha Bosso fire, January 2016 1,062 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 652 ha Bosso fire, December 2016 1,491 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bosso where it started8,858 ha reached on 17 Oct5.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Oct | 41.3 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 12 Oct | 42.1 °C | 9 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 13 Oct | 39.5 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 14 Oct | 40.4 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 15 Oct | 39.6 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 16 Oct | 42.1 °C | 11 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 17 Oct | 41.7 °C | 8 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 18 Oct | 40.9 °C | 4 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 19 Oct | 40.7 °C | 3 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 20 Oct | 40.4 °C | 6 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 21 Oct | 41.7 °C | 5 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 22 Oct | 42.0 °C | 4 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 23 Oct | 41.7 °C | 3 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 79 |
| 24 Oct after | 42.0 °C | 5 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 25 Oct after | 38.9 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 26 Oct after | 39.9 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 38 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 378Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 27,753 haAbadam28 October 2019 · 10 days · 9 km away
- 42,926 haFouli2 October 2017 · 16 days · 14 km away
- 43,877 haAbadam8 October 2021 · 36 days · 16 km away
- 31,926 haAbadamOctober 2016 · 34 days · 18 km away
- 57,635 haKaya27 September 2016 · 38 days · 20 km away
- 32,284 haKukawa12 October 2018 · 14 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bosso fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 October 2018 and 23 October 2018: 13 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 22,697 hectares (227.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bosso (8,858 ha, 5.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 42.1 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 79, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Niger (OCHA COD-AB). 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.
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
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 OCHA COD-AB (IGNN) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-IGO)). 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.