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Kurmi fire, 6 February 2017 Kurmi

Out · last detection 17 Feb 2017, 12:47 UTC

The fire started on 6 February 2017 in Kurmi, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,058 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 57th largest in Taraba since 2016 (of 160 with a page). Number 58 in Nigeria in 2017, of 143.

Burnt area
3,058ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
6 Feb 2017 – 17 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
6 Feb
2017
Heat detections
250
in a single hotspot: 139 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Feb17 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
35km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 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: 1,268 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Kurmi where it started
    3,077 ha reached on 5 Feb
    0.7 %

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)
6 Feb 37.7 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Feb 37.5 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Feb 37.4 °C 6 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Feb 38.4 °C 6 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Feb 37.1 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Feb 39.2 °C 6 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Feb 38.3 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Feb 37.4 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Feb 38.7 °C 6 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Feb 37.6 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Feb 35.6 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Feb 35.6 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Feb after 35.5 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Feb after 36.6 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Feb after 37.3 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Feb after 38.2 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Feb after 39.2 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Feb after 39.7 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Feb after 40.3 °C 7 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Feb after 39.3 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Feb after 38.6 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Feb after 38.9 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jan 2017
After · 24 Feb 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 · 250Every 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 Kurmi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 February 2017 and 17 February 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 3,058 hectares (30.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kurmi (3,077 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.