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Kanam fire, November 2022 Kanam

Out · last detection 29 Nov 2022, 00:21 UTC

The fire started on 17 November 2022 in Kanam, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,223 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 5th largest in Plateau since 2016 (of 35 with a page). Number 17 in Nigeria in 2022, of 125.

The power measured by the satellite is low (15.4 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
5,223ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
17 Nov 2022 – 29 Nov 2022
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
17 Nov
2022
Heat detections
170
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
766MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Nov 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Nov29 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

17181920212223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
38km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 34 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. Kanam where it started
    5,256 ha reached on 17 Nov
    1.9 %

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)
17 Nov 35.0 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Nov 35.4 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Nov 35.9 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Nov 35.9 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Nov 35.6 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Nov 35.7 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Nov 34.8 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Nov 34.6 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Nov 34.8 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Nov 35.0 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Nov 33.8 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Nov 34.5 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Nov 33.0 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Nov after 34.0 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Dec after 33.9 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Dec after 35.1 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Dec after 35.7 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Dec after 37.5 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Dec after 36.3 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Dec after 35.4 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Dec after 34.1 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Dec after 33.6 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Dec after 33.8 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Nov 2022
After · 6 Dec 2022

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 · 170Every 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 Kanam fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 November 2022 and 29 November 2022: 13 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 5,223 hectares (52.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kanam (5,256 ha, 1.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.