Marte fire, 9 October 2023 Marte, Ngala
The fire started on 9 October 2023 in Marte, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,056 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 183th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 457 with a page). Number 64 in Nigeria in 2023, of 161.
- Burnt area
- 3,056ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 9 Oct 2023 – 9 Oct 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 9 Oct
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 62
- in a single hotspot: 48 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 752MW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 419 ha in 2016, 1,216 ha in 2017, 822 ha in 2019, 1,026 ha in 2020, 1,287 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,647 ha that had burned before.
- 1,216 ha Ngala fire, November 2017 3,390 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,154 ha Ngala fire, October 2021 3,910 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 133 ha Marte fire, October 2021 3,796 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 40 ha Ngala fire, December 2020 3,147 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Marte where it started2,761 ha reached on 9 Oct1.3 %
-
313 ha reached on 9 Oct0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Oct | 38.9 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Oct after | 39.5 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 11 Oct after | 39.4 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 12 Oct after | 34.1 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Oct after | 38.7 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Oct after | 39.1 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Oct after | 37.9 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Oct after | 36.3 °C | 38 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 17 Oct after | 39.4 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Oct after | 39.6 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Oct after | 38.6 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
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 · 62Every 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 9 October 2023 and 9 October 2023: 1 day 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 3,056 hectares (30.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Marte (2,761 ha, 1.3 %); Ngala (313 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.