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Guzamala fire, 21 October 2020 Guzamala, Kukawa

Out · last detection 26 Oct 2020, 11:52 UTC

The fire started on 21 October 2020 in Guzamala, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,620 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 128th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 457 with a page). Number 31 in Nigeria in 2020, of 150.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.2 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
3,620ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
21 Oct 2020 – 26 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
21 Oct
2020
Heat detections
116
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
838MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Oct 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Oct26 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2122232526

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
37km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,859 ha in 2018, 206 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,887 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Guzamala where it started
    2,978 ha reached on 21 Oct
    1.2 %
  2. Kukawa
    663 ha reached on 22 Oct
    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)
21 Oct 38.0 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Oct 38.5 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Oct 37.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Oct 36.3 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Oct 35.7 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Oct 34.9 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Oct after 35.8 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Oct after 36.3 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Oct after 37.3 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Oct after 37.1 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Oct after 36.2 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Nov after 35.3 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Nov after 34.5 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Nov after 35.4 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Nov after 36.3 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Nov after 35.2 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Oct 2020
After · 2 Nov 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 · 116Every 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 Guzamala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 October 2020 and 26 October 2020: 6 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 3,620 hectares (36.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guzamala (2,978 ha, 1.2 %); Kukawa (663 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 37 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.

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.