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Giwa fire, December 2016 Giwa, Birnin Gwari

Out · last detection 5 Jan 2017, 12:55 UTC

The fire started on 24 December 2016 in Giwa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,066 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 17th largest in Kaduna since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 36 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

Burnt area
4,066ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
24 Dec 2016 – 4 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
24 Dec
2016
Heat detections
146
in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
618MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Dec4 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2425272829303112345

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
52km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Giwa where it started
    2,159 ha reached on 24 Dec
    0.9 %
  2. Birnin Gwari
    1,930 ha reached on 24 Dec
    0.3 %

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)
24 Dec 30.4 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Dec 28.6 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Dec 26.0 °C 17 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Dec 27.0 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Dec 26.6 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Dec 27.9 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Dec 27.6 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Dec 27.8 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Jan 27.6 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Jan 28.7 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Jan 28.8 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Jan 29.6 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Jan after 30.3 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Jan after 31.2 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Jan after 28.1 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Jan after 29.8 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Jan after 28.9 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Jan after 30.6 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Jan after 30.4 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Jan after 31.1 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Jan after 31.4 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Jan after 29.7 °C 16 % 39 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 · 17 Dec 2016
After · 11 Jan 2017

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 · 146Every 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 Giwa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 December 2016 and 4 January 2017: 12 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 4,066 hectares (40.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Giwa (2,159 ha, 0.9 %); Birnin Gwari (1,930 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.