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Mariga fire, 10 January 2016 Mariga

Out · last detection 18 Jan 2016, 13:15 UTC

The fire started on 10 January 2016 in Mariga, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,697 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 109th largest in Niger since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 49 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.8 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
3,697ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
10 Jan 2016 – 17 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
10 Jan
2016
Heat detections
145
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
791MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jan17 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415161718

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
11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Mariga where it started
    3,723 ha reached on 10 Jan
    0.6 %

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)
10 Jan 35.6 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Jan 35.8 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Jan 34.4 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Jan 33.4 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Jan 33.1 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Jan 34.0 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Jan 33.6 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Jan 34.1 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Jan after 34.5 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jan after 33.5 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan after 32.5 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Jan after 33.0 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jan after 33.9 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Jan after 32.2 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Jan after 30.0 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
25 Jan after 30.3 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Jan after 29.1 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 Jan after 29.8 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Jan 2016
After · 24 Jan 2016

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 · 145Every 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 Mariga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 January 2016 and 17 January 2016: 8 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 3,697 hectares (37.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mariga (3,723 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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
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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.