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Maru fire, 27 November 2016 Maru, Bungudu, Gusau

Out · last detection 17 Dec 2016, 12:11 UTC

The fire started on 27 November 2016 in Maru, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,869 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 4 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

Burnt area
14,869ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
27 Nov 2016 – 16 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
3
local government areas
Started on
27 Nov
2016
Heat detections
543
in a single hotspot: 120 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
5.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Nov16 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

27282930123467891011121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
44km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Maru where it started
    8,431 ha reached on 27 Nov
    1.1 %
  2. Bungudu
    5,275 ha reached on 28 Nov
    2.5 %
  3. Gusau
    1,244 ha reached on 11 Dec
    0.6 %

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)
27 Nov 34.8 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Nov 34.8 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Nov 35.4 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Nov 35.2 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Dec 34.3 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Dec 32.5 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Dec 32.8 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Dec 32.1 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Dec 31.5 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
6 Dec 31.5 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Dec 32.3 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Dec 34.1 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Dec 34.8 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Dec 33.9 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Dec 33.1 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Dec 32.1 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Dec 32.5 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Dec 32.5 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Dec 31.5 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Dec 32.2 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Dec after 33.3 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Dec after 31.6 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Dec after 33.3 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Dec after 33.1 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Dec after 33.1 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Dec after 33.2 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Dec after 32.7 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Dec after 31.0 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
25 Dec after 28.8 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
26 Dec after 26.4 °C 17 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Nov 2016
After · 23 Dec 2016

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 · 543Every 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 Maru fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 November 2016 and 16 December 2016: 20 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 14,869 hectares (148.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Maru (8,431 ha, 1.1 %); Bungudu (5,275 ha, 2.5 %); Gusau (1,244 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
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.