Kukawa fire, 30 September 2016 Kukawa, Abadam
The fire started on 30 September 2016 in Kukawa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,365 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 66th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 457 with a page). Number 16 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.
- Burnt area
- 5,365ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 30 Sept 2016 – 7 Oct 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 30 Sept
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 243
- in a single hotspot: 65 MW
- Danger at start
- 53
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.8GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 9 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
-
Kukawa where it started5,119 ha reached on 30 Sept1.0 %
-
216 ha reached on 3 Oct0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Sept | 41.0 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 1 Oct | 41.1 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 2 Oct | 40.7 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 3 Oct | 40.5 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 4 Oct | 41.1 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 5 Oct | 40.8 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 6 Oct | 37.4 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.8 mm | Very high 46 |
| 7 Oct | 40.7 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 8 Oct after | 41.6 °C | 9 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 9 Oct after | 40.9 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 10 Oct after | 41.8 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 11 Oct after | 42.1 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 12 Oct after | 39.7 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 13 Oct after | 41.3 °C | 6 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 14 Oct after | 41.8 °C | 3 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 79 |
| 15 Oct after | 41.1 °C | 5 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 81 |
| 16 Oct after | 41.6 °C | 4 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 77 |
| 17 Oct after | 40.9 °C | 6 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 85 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 243Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 39,930 haAbadamOctober 2017 · 30 days · 2 km away
- 32,284 haKukawa12 October 2018 · 14 days · 10 km away
- 57,635 haKaya27 September 2016 · 38 days · 18 km away
- 31,926 haAbadamOctober 2016 · 34 days · 21 km away
- 43,877 haAbadam8 October 2021 · 36 days · 22 km away
- 42,926 haFouli2 October 2017 · 16 days · 23 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kukawa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 September 2016 and 7 October 2016: 8 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 5,365 hectares (53.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kukawa (5,119 ha, 1.0 %); Abadam (216 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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
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.