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Chikun fire, 12 December 2021 Chikun

Out · last detection 22 Dec 2021, 00:34 UTC

The fire started on 12 December 2021 in Chikun, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,101 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 16th largest in Kaduna since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 47 in Nigeria in 2021, of 184.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.2 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
4,101ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
12 Dec 2021 – 21 Dec 2021
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
12 Dec
2021
Heat detections
137
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
337MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Dec 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Dec21 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

121314151819202122

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
52km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 269 ha in 2016, 547 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 644 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chikun where it started
    4,122 ha reached on 7 Dec
    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)
12 Dec 34.0 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Dec 34.8 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Dec 34.1 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Dec 32.4 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Dec 31.8 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Dec 30.8 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Dec 29.6 °C 19 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Dec 29.8 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Dec 30.2 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Dec 31.1 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Dec after 31.6 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Dec after 33.3 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Dec after 34.2 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Dec after 33.4 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Dec after 34.4 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Dec after 32.7 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Dec after 31.4 °C 19 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Dec after 31.5 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Dec after 31.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Dec after 32.9 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Dec 2021
After · 28 Dec 2021

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 · 137Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chikun fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 December 2021 and 21 December 2021: 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 4,101 hectares (41.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chikun (4,122 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 52 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.

Report an error
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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.