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Maru fire, 18 November 2021 Maru, Anka

Out · last detection 26 Nov 2021, 13:09 UTC

The fire started on 18 November 2021 in Maru, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,682 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 25th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 24 in Nigeria in 2021, of 184.

Burnt area
5,682ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
18 Nov 2021 – 26 Nov 2021
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
18 Nov
2021
Heat detections
157
in a single hotspot: 46 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Nov 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Nov26 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

181920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
37km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,863 ha in 2016, 1,918 ha in 2017, 653 ha in 2018, 2,333 ha in 2019, 3,159 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,928 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Maru where it started
    4,349 ha reached on 18 Nov
    0.6 %
  2. Anka
    1,369 ha reached on 20 Nov
    0.5 %

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 Nov 35.3 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Nov 35.5 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Nov 35.3 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Nov 34.5 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Nov 35.5 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Nov 35.6 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Nov 35.9 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Nov 35.9 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Nov 35.2 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Nov after 35.3 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Nov after 35.1 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Nov after 34.9 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Nov after 34.9 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Dec after 34.1 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Dec after 33.3 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Dec after 32.3 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Dec after 33.0 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Dec after 33.2 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Dec after 33.6 °C 19 % 32 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 · 11 Nov 2021
After · 3 Dec 2021

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 · 157Every 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 November 2021 and 26 November 2021: 9 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 5,682 hectares (56.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maru (4,349 ha, 0.6 %); Anka (1,369 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
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
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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.