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Kaga fire, 22 March 2016 Kaga

Out · last detection 25 Mar 2016, 12:17 UTC

The fire started on 22 March 2016 in Kaga, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,891 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 214th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 461 with a page). Number 77 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

Burnt area
2,891ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
22 Mar 2016 – 24 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
22 Mar
2016
Heat detections
126
in a single hotspot: 304 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Mar24 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

22232425

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
32km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 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. Kaga where it started
    2,906 ha reached on 22 Mar
    0.8 %

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)
22 Mar 42.0 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Mar 42.4 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Mar 41.3 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Mar after 39.5 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Mar after 38.5 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Mar after 38.4 °C 7 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Mar after 38.9 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Mar after 39.7 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Mar after 39.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
31 Mar after 39.3 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
1 Apr after 38.2 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
2 Apr after 39.3 °C 8 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Apr after 39.9 °C 6 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Mar 2016
After · 31 Mar 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 · 126Every 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 Kaga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 March 2016 and 24 March 2016: 3 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 2,891 hectares (28.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kaga (2,906 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 42.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 32 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.