Kukawa fire, 11 October 2021 Kukawa
The fire started on 11 October 2021 in Kukawa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,723 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 238th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 457 with a page). Number 115 in Nigeria in 2021, of 184.
- Burnt area
- 2,723ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 11 Oct 2021 – 16 Oct 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 11 Oct
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 113
- in a single hotspot: 67 MW
- Danger at start
- 61
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 971MW
- 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 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 11.8 mm on 17 Oct.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,093 ha in 2016, 2,485 ha in 2017, 1,556 ha in 2018, 86 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,498 ha that had burned before.
- 1,556 ha Kukawa fire, October 2018 32,284 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,352 ha Kukawa fire, September 2016 5,365 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,171 ha Abadam fire, October 2017 39,930 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 487 ha Abadam fire, October 2016 31,926 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 254 ha Kukawa fire, October 2016 2,978 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kukawa where it started2,743 ha reached on 5 Oct0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Oct | 42.6 °C | 7 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 12 Oct | 42.3 °C | 3 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 13 Oct | 43.2 °C | 2 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 14 Oct | 41.6 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 15 Oct | 36.2 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.3 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 16 Oct | 34.5 °C | 48 % | 46 km/h | 9.2 mm | Low 10 |
| 17 Oct after | 34.4 °C | 50 % | 20 km/h | 11.8 mm | Very low 4 |
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 · 113Every 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 · 4 km away
- 32,284 haKukawa12 October 2018 · 14 days · 12 km away
- 57,635 haKaya27 September 2016 · 38 days · 21 km away
- 31,926 haAbadamOctober 2016 · 34 days · 22 km away
- 43,877 haAbadam8 October 2021 · 36 days · 23 km away
- 42,926 haFouli2 October 2017 · 16 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kukawa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 October 2021 and 16 October 2021: 6 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 2,723 hectares (27.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kukawa (2,743 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 43.2 °C, humidity dropped to 2 % and gusts hit 46 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
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.