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Faskari fire, 6 December 2023 Faskari, Tsafe

Out · last detection 15 Dec 2023, 01:17 UTC

The fire started on 6 December 2023 in Faskari, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,736 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Katsina since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 79 in Nigeria in 2023, of 161.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.2 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
2,736ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
6 Dec 2023 – 14 Dec 2023
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
6 Dec
2023
Heat detections
93
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
479MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Dec 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Dec14 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
48km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 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. Faskari where it started
    2,751 ha reached on 30 Nov
    1.8 %
  2. Tsafe
    2 ha
    0.0 %

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)
6 Dec 31.6 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Dec 31.4 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Dec 31.3 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Dec 31.4 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Dec 31.4 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Dec 27.3 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Dec 26.8 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Dec 26.3 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Dec 27.6 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Dec after 29.1 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Dec after 29.7 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Dec after 30.1 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Dec after 31.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Dec after 30.8 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Dec after 31.9 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Dec after 32.3 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Dec after 29.4 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Dec after 29.6 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Dec after 27.2 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Nov 2023
After · 21 Dec 2023

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 · 93Every 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 Faskari fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 December 2023 and 14 December 2023: 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 2,736 hectares (27.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Faskari (2,751 ha, 1.8 %); Tsafe (2 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.