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Kurmi fire, 18 January 2021 Kurmi, Donga

Out · last detection 28 Jan 2021, 12:28 UTC

The fire started on 18 January 2021 in Kurmi, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,426 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 39th largest in Taraba since 2016 (of 160 with a page). Number 72 in Nigeria in 2021, of 184.

Burnt area
3,426ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
18 Jan 2021 – 27 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
18 Jan
2021
Heat detections
146
in a single hotspot: 40 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
608MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jan 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jan27 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
34km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,144 ha in 2016, 122 ha in 2018, 1,238 ha in 2019, 68 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,897 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Kurmi where it started
    1,762 ha reached on 11 Jan
    0.4 %
  2. Donga
    1,686 ha reached on 13 Jan
    0.5 %

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)
18 Jan 37.5 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Jan 35.7 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan 34.7 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Jan 33.9 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Jan 34.9 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Jan 34.9 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Jan 35.6 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Jan 37.0 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Jan 37.5 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Jan 37.1 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Jan after 37.2 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Jan after 37.3 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Jan after 36.8 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Jan after 37.2 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Feb after 37.5 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Feb after 37.8 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Feb after 39.0 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Feb after 37.0 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Feb after 37.3 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Feb after 37.5 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Jan 2021
After · 3 Feb 2021

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 · 146Every 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 18 January 2021 and 27 January 2021: 10 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 3,426 hectares (34.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kurmi (1,762 ha, 0.4 %); Donga (1,686 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 34 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.