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Kanke fire, February 2016 Kanke, Kanam

Out · last detection 21 Feb 2016, 01:31 UTC

The fire started on 17 February 2016 in Kanke, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,744 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Plateau since 2016 (of 35 with a page). Number 46 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

Burnt area
3,744ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
17 Feb 2016 – 21 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
17 Feb
2016
Heat detections
116
in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Feb21 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

17181921

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
38km/h · peak gust
8%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. Kanke where it started
    3,156 ha reached on 17 Feb
    3.6 %
  2. Kanam
    614 ha reached on 17 Feb
    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)
17 Feb 37.0 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Feb 37.2 °C 9 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Feb 35.5 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Feb 34.0 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Feb 35.4 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Feb after 34.2 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Feb after 32.0 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
24 Feb after 33.3 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Feb after 34.7 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Feb after 35.5 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Feb after 37.5 °C 9 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
28 Feb after 38.1 °C 12 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Feb after 38.2 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Mar after 39.0 °C 11 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Mar after 38.4 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Feb 2016
After · 28 Feb 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 · 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kanke fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 February 2016 and 21 February 2016: 5 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 3,744 hectares (37.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kanke (3,156 ha, 3.6 %); Kanam (614 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.