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Gummi fire, December 2016 Gummi, Bukkuyum

Out · last detection 14 Dec 2016, 13:08 UTC

The fire started on 6 December 2016 in Gummi, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,959 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 53th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 40 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

Burnt area
3,959ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
6 Dec 2016 – 13 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
6 Dec
2016
Heat detections
110
in a single hotspot: 40 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
452MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Dec13 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
37km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 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. Gummi where it started
    3,058 ha reached on 6 Dec
    1.0 %
  2. Bukkuyum
    923 ha reached on 10 Dec
    0.2 %

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 34.2 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Dec 35.4 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Dec 36.4 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Dec 36.9 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Dec 36.6 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
11 Dec 36.1 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Dec 34.7 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Dec 35.3 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Dec after 35.3 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Dec after 34.3 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Dec after 34.6 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Dec after 35.5 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Dec after 34.7 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Dec after 35.5 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Dec after 35.8 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Dec after 35.6 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
22 Dec after 35.7 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
23 Dec after 35.1 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Nov 2016
After · 20 Dec 2016

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 · 110Every 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 Gummi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 December 2016 and 13 December 2016: 8 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 3,959 hectares (39.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gummi (3,058 ha, 1.0 %); Bukkuyum (923 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.