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Maru fire, 18 December 2016 Maru

Out · last detection 26 Dec 2016, 12:43 UTC

The fire started on 18 December 2016 in Maru, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,016 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 92th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 70 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

Burnt area
3,016ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
18 Dec 2016 – 25 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
18 Dec
2016
Heat detections
100
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
800MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Dec25 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1820212223242526

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 more than two months 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
    3,034 ha reached on 18 Dec
    0.4 %

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)
18 Dec 32.5 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Dec 34.8 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Dec 34.5 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Dec 34.7 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Dec 34.6 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Dec 33.9 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Dec 32.3 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
25 Dec 30.2 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Dec after 27.7 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Dec after 28.6 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Dec after 28.5 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Dec after 29.5 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Dec after 29.0 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
31 Dec after 29.4 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Jan after 29.1 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Jan after 30.2 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Jan after 30.3 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Jan after 30.8 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Dec 2016
After · 1 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 · 100Every 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 18 December 2016 and 25 December 2016: 8 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 3,016 hectares (30.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Maru (3,034 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °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.