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Maru fire, 12 November 2022 Maru

Out · last detection 25 Nov 2022, 12:43 UTC

The fire started on 12 November 2022 in Maru, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,685 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 35th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 19 in Nigeria in 2022, of 125.

Burnt area
4,685ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
12 Nov 2022 – 24 Nov 2022
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
12 Nov
2022
Heat detections
203
in a single hotspot: 62 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Nov 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Nov24 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
42km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 534 ha in 2016, 1,874 ha in 2017, 979 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,691 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Maru where it started
    4,707 ha reached on 5 Nov
    0.6 %

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)
12 Nov 33.9 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Nov 33.4 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Nov 32.8 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Nov 32.0 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Nov 32.3 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Nov 32.4 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Nov 33.1 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Nov 33.8 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Nov 32.5 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Nov 32.6 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Nov 33.5 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Nov 32.5 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Nov 31.9 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Nov after 32.8 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Nov after 33.5 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Nov after 32.9 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Nov after 33.0 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Nov after 32.0 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Nov after 32.3 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Dec after 33.3 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Dec after 34.1 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Dec after 34.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Dec after 35.3 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Nov 2022
After · 1 Dec 2022

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 · 203Every 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 12 November 2022 and 24 November 2022: 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 4,685 hectares (46.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Maru (4,707 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.