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Marte fire, 15 October 2017 Marte, Mafa

Out · last detection 17 Oct 2017, 12:11 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2017 in Marte, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,417 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 143th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 457 with a page). Number 45 in Nigeria in 2017, of 143.

The power measured by the satellite is low (17.8 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
3,417ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
15 Oct 2017 – 17 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
15 Oct
2017
Heat detections
98
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
578MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct17 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

151617

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
37km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,246 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Marte where it started
    1,949 ha reached on 15 Oct
    0.9 %
  2. Mafa
    1,489 ha reached on 15 Oct
    0.4 %

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)
15 Oct 36.1 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Oct 36.2 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Oct 36.8 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Oct after 35.8 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Oct after 36.3 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Oct after 36.4 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Oct after 37.3 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Oct after 37.6 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Oct after 37.9 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Oct after 37.5 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Oct after 37.0 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Oct after 36.8 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Oct after 35.5 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Oct 2017
After · 24 Oct 2017

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 · 98Every 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 Marte fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 October 2017 and 17 October 2017: 3 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 3,417 hectares (34.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Marte (1,949 ha, 0.9 %); Mafa (1,489 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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
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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.