Mariga fire, November 2022 Mariga, Kontagora
The fire started on 12 November 2022 in Mariga, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,906 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 63th largest in Niger since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 18 in Nigeria in 2022, of 125.
- Burnt area
- 4,906ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 12 Nov 2022 – 26 Nov 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 12 Nov
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 236
- in a single hotspot: 133 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.9GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,028 ha in 2016, 2,706 ha in 2020, 1,120 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,430 ha that had burned before.
- 3,111 ha Mariga fire, December 2020 26,828 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 708 ha Kontagora fire, December 2021 2,370 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 681 ha Mariga fire, January 2016 2,168 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 347 ha Mariga fire, January 2016 5,320 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7 ha Mariga fire, January 2021 3,693 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mariga where it started3,998 ha reached on 7 Nov0.6 %
-
938 ha reached on 10 Nov0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Nov | 35.2 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Nov | 35.2 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 14 Nov | 34.9 °C | 18 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Nov | 33.9 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Nov | 33.9 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 17 Nov | 34.1 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Nov | 34.9 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 19 Nov | 35.5 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Nov | 34.2 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 21 Nov | 34.7 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 22 Nov | 35.2 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 23 Nov | 34.5 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Nov | 34.5 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Nov | 35.4 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 26 Nov | 35.4 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Nov after | 34.2 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Nov after | 34.3 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 29 Nov after | 33.6 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Nov after | 33.7 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Dec after | 34.9 °C | 23 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Dec after | 35.4 °C | 24 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 3 Dec after | 35.4 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Dec after | 36.9 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 5 Dec after | 36.3 °C | 18 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 6 Dec after | 34.1 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 236Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 26,828 haMarigaDecember 2020 · 24 days · 5 km away
- 94,992 haKontagora25 December 2025 · 32 days · 7 km away
- 19,897 haMariga30 December 2023 · 18 days · 26 km away
- 16,715 haMariga14 January 2026 · 14 days · 33 km away
- 18,293 haMariga2 January 2025 · 17 days · 34 km away
- 19,439 haMariga27 December 2023 · 17 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mariga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 November 2022 and 26 November 2022: 15 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 4,906 hectares (49.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mariga (3,998 ha, 0.6 %); Kontagora (938 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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
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.