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Maru fire, 25 December 2017 Maru

Out · last detection 7 Jan 2018, 13:14 UTC

The fire started on 25 December 2017 in Maru, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,860 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 4th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 4 in Nigeria in 2017, of 143.

Burnt area
15,860ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
25 Dec 2017 – 6 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
25 Dec
2017
Heat detections
1,071
in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
5.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Dec6 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

252627282930311234567

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
53km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

53% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,739 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Maru where it started
    15,939 ha reached on 23 Dec
    2.1 %

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)
25 Dec 29.6 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Dec 30.3 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Dec 31.8 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Dec 32.9 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Dec 32.3 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Dec 30.6 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
31 Dec 29.4 °C 14 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
1 Jan 28.7 °C 15 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Jan 27.9 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 Jan 28.4 °C 16 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
4 Jan 28.8 °C 10 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
5 Jan 28.7 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
6 Jan 30.1 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Jan after 32.1 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Jan after 31.9 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Jan after 32.1 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
10 Jan after 31.9 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Jan after 31.2 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
12 Jan after 31.6 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Jan after 30.3 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Jan after 30.2 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Jan after 31.2 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
16 Jan after 31.0 °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 · 18 Dec 2017
After · 13 Jan 2018

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 · 1,071Every 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 25 December 2017 and 6 January 2018: 13 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 15,860 hectares (158.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Maru (15,939 ha, 2.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 53 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.