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Damboa fire, 18 November 2020 Damboa, Gwoza

Out · last detection 24 Nov 2020, 00:01 UTC

The fire started on 18 November 2020 in Damboa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,285 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 158th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 461 with a page). Number 43 in Nigeria in 2020, of 150.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.6 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
3,285ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
18 Nov 2020 – 24 Nov 2020
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
18 Nov
2020
Heat detections
75
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
292MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Nov 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Nov24 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324

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
33km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,801 ha in 2016, 3,128 ha in 2017, 1,955 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,262 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Damboa where it started
    3,092 ha reached on 18 Nov
    0.6 %
  2. Gwoza
    213 ha reached on 23 Nov
    0.1 %

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)
18 Nov 32.3 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Nov 32.8 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Nov 33.1 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Nov 33.2 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Nov 34.7 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Nov 35.7 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Nov 35.8 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Nov after 34.6 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Nov after 33.9 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Nov after 33.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Nov after 33.5 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Nov after 33.9 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Nov after 34.7 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Dec after 34.4 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Dec after 33.9 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Dec after 33.9 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Dec after 34.8 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Nov 2020
After · 1 Dec 2020

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 · 75Every 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 Damboa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 November 2020 and 24 November 2020: 7 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 3,285 hectares (32.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Damboa (3,092 ha, 0.6 %); Gwoza (213 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.

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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.