Mariga fire, 12 December 2024 Mariga, Kontagora
The fire started on 12 December 2024 in Mariga, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,757 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 104th largest in Niger since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 30 in Nigeria in 2024, of 118.
The power measured by the satellite is low (27.2 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
- 3,757ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 12 Dec 2024 – 16 Dec 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 12 Dec
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 89
- in a single hotspot: 27 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 713MW
- 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 49 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,008 ha in 2016, 5,139 ha in 2021, 58 ha in 2022, 1,291 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,717 ha that had burned before.
- 2,008 ha Mariga fire, January 2016 5,320 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,982 ha Mariga fire, December 2020 26,828 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,747 ha Kontagora fire, December 2021 3,722 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,291 ha Mariga fire, December 2023 15,898 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 58 ha Mariga fire, January 2022 2,744 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 37 ha Kontagora fire, December 2021 4,038 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mariga where it started3,025 ha reached on 12 Dec0.5 %
-
753 ha reached on 13 Dec0.4 %
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 Dec | 36.6 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 13 Dec | 36.0 °C | 15 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Dec | 35.0 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Dec | 32.4 °C | 21 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 16 Dec | 33.6 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 17 Dec after | 34.2 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 18 Dec after | 33.2 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 19 Dec after | 30.6 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 20 Dec after | 30.9 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 21 Dec after | 31.4 °C | 20 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Dec after | 32.2 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Dec after | 33.6 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 24 Dec after | 34.9 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Dec after | 34.9 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Dec after | 34.0 °C | 14 % | 30 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.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 19 December 2024 the air beside the fire reached 243 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 158: 11 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 89Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mariga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 December 2024 and 16 December 2024: 5 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 3,757 hectares (37.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mariga (3,025 ha, 0.5 %); Kontagora (753 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % 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
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.