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Maru fire, 27 December 2016 Maru, Birnin Gwari

Out · last detection 6 Jan 2017, 12:36 UTC

The fire started on 27 December 2016 in Maru, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,736 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 33th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 22 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

The power measured by the satellite is low (12.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
4,736ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
27 Dec 2016 – 5 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
27 Dec
2016
Heat detections
212
in a single hotspot: 13 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
633MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Dec5 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2728293031123456

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
41km/h · peak gust
16%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
    4,722 ha reached on 27 Dec
    0.6 %
  2. Birnin Gwari
    32 ha
    0.0 %

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 Dec 29.7 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Dec 29.6 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Dec 30.4 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Dec 30.2 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Dec 30.0 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Jan 30.2 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Jan 31.1 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Jan 31.4 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Jan 31.9 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Jan 32.8 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Jan after 34.0 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Jan after 30.9 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Jan after 32.8 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Jan after 31.6 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Jan after 32.6 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Jan after 32.3 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Jan after 33.2 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Jan after 32.0 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Jan after 31.8 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Jan after 33.1 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Dec 2016
After · 12 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 · 212Every 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 December 2016 and 5 January 2017: 10 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 4,736 hectares (47.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maru (4,722 ha, 0.6 %); Birnin Gwari (32 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.