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Maru fire, 12 December 2016 Maru

Out · last detection 7 Jan 2017, 12:17 UTC

The fire started on 12 December 2016 in Maru, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 43,149 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the largest fire in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). The largest in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

Burnt area
43,149ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
12 Dec 2016 – 6 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
12 Dec
2016
Heat detections
2,606
in a single hotspot: 77 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
16.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Dec6 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567

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
45km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 58 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
    43,374 ha reached on 12 Dec
    5.8 %

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)
12 Dec 33.3 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Dec 33.7 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Dec 33.6 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Dec 32.7 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Dec 33.1 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Dec 34.2 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Dec 32.4 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Dec 34.7 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Dec 34.3 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Dec 34.6 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Dec 34.4 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Dec 33.8 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Dec 32.1 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
25 Dec 30.1 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
26 Dec 27.5 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Dec 28.5 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
28 Dec 28.3 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Dec 29.3 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Dec 28.9 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Dec 29.3 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Jan 28.9 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Jan 30.1 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Jan 30.1 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Jan 30.7 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Jan 31.7 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Jan 33.1 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Jan after 31.0 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Jan after 31.8 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Jan after 30.4 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Jan after 31.6 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Jan after 32.6 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Jan after 33.0 °C 19 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Jan after 30.2 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 Jan after 30.8 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Jan after 32.3 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Jan after 32.9 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Dec 2016
After · 13 Jan 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 · 2,606Every 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 12 December 2016 and 6 January 2017: 26 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 43,149 hectares (431.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Maru (43,374 ha, 5.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.