Marte fire, 24 October 2021 Marte
The fire started on 24 October 2021 in Marte, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,060 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 185th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 461 with a page). Number 97 in Nigeria in 2021, of 184.
- Burnt area
- 3,060ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 24 Oct 2021 – 25 Oct 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 24 Oct
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 66
- in a single hotspot: 94 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.0GW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 454 ha in 2016, 162 ha in 2017, 51 ha in 2019, 18 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 639 ha that had burned before.
- 454 ha Marte fire, October 2016 2,165 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 162 ha Marte fire, January 2017 3,672 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 18 ha Marte fire, November 2020 2,105 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Marte where it started3,077 ha reached on 24 Oct1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Oct | 37.6 °C | 24 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 25 Oct | 38.3 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 26 Oct after | 38.1 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Oct after | 37.5 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Oct after | 38.0 °C | 17 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 29 Oct after | 38.6 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Oct after | 37.6 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 31 Oct after | 38.1 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Nov after | 37.8 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Nov after | 38.5 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Nov after | 38.5 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Nov after | 38.7 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
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 · 66Every 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 Marte fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 October 2021 and 25 October 2021: 2 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 3,060 hectares (30.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Marte (3,077 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class 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.