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Monguno fire, October 2018 Kukawa, Monguno

Out · last detection 22 Oct 2018, 00:26 UTC

The fire started on 16 October 2018 in Monguno, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,627 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 127th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 457 with a page). Number 15 in Nigeria in 2018, of 63.

Burnt area
3,627ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
16 Oct 2018 – 21 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
16 Oct
2018
Heat detections
85
in a single hotspot: 194 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
807MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Oct21 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

16171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
37km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

8% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 290 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Kukawa
    2,178 ha reached on 18 Oct
    0.4 %
  2. Monguno where it started
    1,469 ha reached on 15 Oct
    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)
16 Oct 40.5 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Oct 40.8 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Oct 39.8 °C 5 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Oct 39.8 °C 4 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Oct 40.0 °C 6 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Oct 40.7 °C 6 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Oct after 40.9 °C 6 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Oct after 40.9 °C 4 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
24 Oct after 40.5 °C 6 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
25 Oct after 37.7 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 42
26 Oct after 39.6 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Oct after 39.4 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Oct after 40.4 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Oct after 39.5 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Oct after 39.1 °C 6 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
31 Oct after 38.7 °C 4 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Oct 2018
After · 28 Oct 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 · 85Every 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 Monguno fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 October 2018 and 21 October 2018: 6 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 3,627 hectares (36.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kukawa (2,178 ha, 0.4 %); Monguno (1,469 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 37 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.