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Kukawa fire, 13 October 2018 Kukawa, Abadam

Out · last detection 26 Oct 2018, 11:59 UTC

The fire started on 13 October 2018 in Kukawa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,874 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 457 with a page). Number 2 in Nigeria in 2018, of 63.

Burnt area
12,874ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
13 Oct 2018 – 26 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
13 Oct
2018
Heat detections
453
in a single hotspot: 108 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
6.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Oct26 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1314151617181920212223242526

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
36km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,004 ha in 2016, 3,047 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,287 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Kukawa where it started
    11,189 ha reached on 7 Oct
    2.3 %
  2. Abadam
    1,770 ha reached on 13 Oct
    0.4 %

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)
13 Oct 38.0 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Oct 39.3 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Oct 38.6 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Oct 40.8 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Oct 41.1 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Oct 40.3 °C 6 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Oct 40.2 °C 4 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
20 Oct 40.1 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
21 Oct 40.8 °C 6 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Oct 41.2 °C 6 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Oct 41.0 °C 6 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
24 Oct 40.7 °C 8 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
25 Oct 37.8 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Oct 39.3 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Oct after 39.1 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Oct after 40.8 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Oct after 39.5 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Oct after 39.6 °C 7 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
31 Oct after 38.8 °C 4 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
1 Nov after 39.5 °C 6 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
2 Nov after 39.1 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Nov after 39.6 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
4 Nov after 39.4 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
5 Nov after 38.4 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Oct 2018
After · 2 Nov 2018

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 · 453Every 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 13 October 2018 and 26 October 2018: 14 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 12,874 hectares (128.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kukawa (11,189 ha, 2.3 %); Abadam (1,770 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.2 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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.

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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.