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Kebbe fire, January 2020 Kebbe, Gummi

Out · last detection 27 Jan 2020, 01:03 UTC

The fire started on 23 January 2020 in Kebbe, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,238 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Sokoto since 2016 (of 47 with a page). Number 47 in Nigeria in 2020, of 150.

Burnt area
3,238ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
23 Jan 2020 – 26 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
23 Jan
2020
Heat detections
83
in a single hotspot: 63 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
554MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jan 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jan26 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
51km/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. Kebbe where it started
    2,966 ha reached on 23 Jan
    1.3 %
  2. Gummi
    292 ha reached on 23 Jan
    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)
23 Jan 32.8 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Jan 33.0 °C 9 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
25 Jan 31.9 °C 8 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
26 Jan 31.4 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
27 Jan after 32.3 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Jan after 33.2 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Jan after 33.5 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Jan after 34.6 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
31 Jan after 34.5 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
1 Feb after 32.7 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
2 Feb after 32.2 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Feb after 32.4 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
4 Feb after 32.7 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
5 Feb after 32.5 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jan 2020
After · 2 Feb 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 · 83Every 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 Kebbe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2020 and 26 January 2020: 4 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 3,238 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kebbe (2,966 ha, 1.3 %); Gummi (292 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.