Skip to content
worldfires
NG · Nigeria · →

Kukawa fire, November 2017 Abadam, Kukawa

Out · last detection 19 Nov 2017, 11:52 UTC

The fire started on 8 November 2017 in Kukawa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,205 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 166th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 461 with a page). Number 52 in Nigeria in 2017, of 143.

Burnt area
3,205ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
8 Nov 2017 – 19 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
8 Nov
2017
Heat detections
127
in a single hotspot: 35 MW
Danger at start
71
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Nov19 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

89101112141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
43km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone 48 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,754 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Abadam
    2,375 ha reached on 3 Nov
    0.6 %
  2. Kukawa where it started
    850 ha reached on 1 Nov
    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)
8 Nov 37.3 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
9 Nov 36.2 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
10 Nov 34.9 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
11 Nov 36.2 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
12 Nov 37.7 °C 7 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
13 Nov 37.3 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Nov 39.4 °C 7 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Nov 40.4 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
16 Nov 40.1 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
17 Nov 40.8 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
18 Nov 40.6 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
19 Nov 40.3 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
20 Nov after 38.7 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
21 Nov after 37.1 °C 12 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
22 Nov after 35.1 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
23 Nov after 33.6 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
24 Nov after 33.1 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
25 Nov after 35.0 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
26 Nov after 34.7 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
27 Nov after 35.8 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
28 Nov after 35.0 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
29 Nov after 34.7 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Nov 2017
After · 26 Nov 2017

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 · 127Every 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 Kukawa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 November 2017 and 19 November 2017: 12 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 3,205 hectares (32.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Abadam (2,375 ha, 0.6 %); Kukawa (850 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very 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.