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Mafa fire, 2 November 2020 Mafa, Marte, Monguno

Out · last detection 20 Nov 2020, 12:23 UTC

The fire started on 2 November 2020 in Mafa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,241 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 457 with a page). Number 4 in Nigeria in 2020, of 150.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
16,241ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
2 Nov 2020 – 19 Nov 2020
Municipalities hit
3
local government areas
Started on
2 Nov
2020
Heat detections
516
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Nov 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Nov19 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
40km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,645 ha in 2016, 3,674 ha in 2017, 1,449 ha in 2018, 1,043 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,955 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mafa where it started
    9,717 ha reached on 2 Nov
    2.8 %
  2. Marte
    6,387 ha reached on 4 Nov
    3.0 %
  3. Monguno
    240 ha reached on 16 Nov
    0.1 %

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)
2 Nov 33.7 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Nov 35.0 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Nov 36.0 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Nov 35.3 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Nov 33.4 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Nov 33.1 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Nov 33.8 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Nov 33.8 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Nov 33.8 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Nov 34.5 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Nov 35.6 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Nov 36.2 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Nov 35.6 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Nov 34.6 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Nov 33.7 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Nov 32.7 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Nov 32.6 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Nov 33.2 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Nov after 33.5 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Nov after 33.8 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Nov after 35.0 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Nov after 37.0 °C 14 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Nov after 36.7 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Nov after 35.1 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Nov after 34.4 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Nov after 33.9 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Nov after 33.3 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Nov after 33.9 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Oct 2020
After · 26 Nov 2020

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 · 516Every 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 Mafa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 November 2020 and 19 November 2020: 18 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 16,241 hectares (162.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mafa (9,717 ha, 2.8 %); Marte (6,387 ha, 3.0 %); Monguno (240 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very high.
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.