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Maru fire, 25 December 2017 Maru

Out · last detection 12 Jan 2018, 13:20 UTC

The fire started on 25 December 2017 in Maru, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,143 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 6 in Nigeria in 2017, of 143.

Burnt area
14,143ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
25 Dec 2017 – 11 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
25 Dec
2017
Heat detections
846
in a single hotspot: 84 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
5.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Dec11 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

25262728293031123456789101112

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
52km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,336 ha in 2016, 288 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,755 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Maru where it started
    14,221 ha reached on 22 Dec
    1.9 %

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 29.2 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Dec 30.0 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Dec 31.5 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Dec 32.6 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Dec 31.9 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Dec 30.0 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Dec 29.2 °C 14 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
1 Jan 28.4 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
2 Jan 27.4 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
3 Jan 28.1 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
4 Jan 28.8 °C 9 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
5 Jan 28.4 °C 12 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
6 Jan 29.8 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Jan 32.0 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Jan 31.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Jan 31.8 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Jan 31.4 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Jan 30.8 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
12 Jan after 30.9 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Jan after 29.8 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Jan after 29.9 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Jan after 30.9 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Jan after 30.7 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Jan after 31.0 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
18 Jan after 31.8 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Jan after 32.7 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Jan after 32.6 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Jan after 32.1 °C 6 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Dec 2017
After · 18 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 · 846Every 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 11 January 2018: 18 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 14,143 hectares (141.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Maru (14,221 ha, 1.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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.

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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.