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Maru fire, 26 November 2016 Maru, Anka

Out · last detection 4 Dec 2016, 12:55 UTC

The fire started on 26 November 2016 in Maru, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,735 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 7 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

Burnt area
8,735ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
26 Nov 2016 – 4 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
26 Nov
2016
Heat detections
238
in a single hotspot: 33 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Nov4 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

262829301234

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
41km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 42 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
    5,815 ha reached on 26 Nov
    0.8 %
  2. Anka
    2,982 ha reached on 26 Nov
    1.2 %

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)
26 Nov 36.1 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Nov 36.2 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Nov 36.0 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Nov 36.6 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Nov 36.4 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Dec 35.8 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Dec 33.6 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Dec 34.1 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Dec 33.5 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Dec after 32.9 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Dec after 32.8 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Dec after 33.5 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Dec after 35.4 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Dec after 36.1 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
10 Dec after 35.3 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Dec after 34.5 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
12 Dec after 33.2 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Dec after 33.8 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Dec after 33.9 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Nov 2016
After · 11 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 · 238Every 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 26 November 2016 and 4 December 2016: 9 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 8,735 hectares (87.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maru (5,815 ha, 0.8 %); Anka (2,982 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.