Skip to content
worldfires
NG · Nigeria · →

Kurmi fire, 23 February 2017 Kurmi

Out · last detection 10 Mar 2017, 12:53 UTC

The fire started on 23 February 2017 in Kurmi, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,975 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 61th largest in Taraba since 2016 (of 160 with a page). Number 63 in Nigeria in 2017, of 143.

Burnt area
2,975ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
23 Feb 2017 – 10 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
23 Feb
2017
Heat detections
132
in a single hotspot: 96 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Feb10 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

23252627281234568910

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
7%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 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

  1. Kurmi where it started
    2,994 ha reached on 21 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)
23 Feb 39.1 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Feb 39.4 °C 7 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 Feb 38.4 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Feb 37.5 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Feb 37.8 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Feb 38.7 °C 8 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Mar 38.5 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Mar 37.8 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Mar 38.9 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Mar 39.1 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Mar 38.1 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Mar 36.6 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Mar 35.6 °C 36 % 35 km/h 5.0 mm Low 11
8 Mar 36.8 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Mar 37.6 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Mar 35.8 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Mar after 36.4 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Mar after 37.0 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Mar after 37.4 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Mar after 36.1 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Mar after 37.6 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Mar after 37.3 °C 6 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
17 Mar after 38.4 °C 5 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Mar after 39.6 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
19 Mar after 37.3 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Mar after 36.8 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Feb 2017
After · 17 Mar 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 · 132Every 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 23 February 2017 and 10 March 2017: 16 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 2,975 hectares (29.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kurmi (2,994 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.