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N'Guigmi fire, October 2016 N'Guigmi, Bosso

Out · last detection 1 Nov 2016, 00:26 UTC

The fire started on 22 October 2016 in N'Guigmi, Niger, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,745 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Diffa since 2016 (of 61 with a page). The largest in Niger in 2016, of 41.

Burnt area
10,745ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
22 Oct 2016 – 31 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
22 Oct
2016
Heat detections
435
in a single hotspot: 130 MW
Danger at start
79
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
5.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Oct31 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

222324252627282930311

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
49km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. N'Guigmi where it started
    10,329 ha reached on 22 Oct
    3.3 %
  2. Bosso
    468 ha reached on 25 Oct
    0.3 %

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)
22 Oct 38.4 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 79
23 Oct 37.4 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
24 Oct 37.1 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
25 Oct 37.3 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
26 Oct 37.2 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
27 Oct 36.7 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
28 Oct 36.5 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
29 Oct 37.8 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
30 Oct 38.8 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
31 Oct 39.5 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
1 Nov after 39.8 °C 9 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
2 Nov after 37.7 °C 11 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 87
3 Nov after 35.5 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
4 Nov after 35.4 °C 13 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 80
5 Nov after 35.8 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
6 Nov after 35.5 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
7 Nov after 35.9 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
8 Nov after 36.3 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
9 Nov after 35.9 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
10 Nov after 36.8 °C 8 % 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 · 15 Oct 2016
After · 7 Nov 2016

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 · 435Every 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 Niger ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the N'Guigmi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 October 2016 and 31 October 2016: 10 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 10,745 hectares (107.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: N'Guigmi (10,329 ha, 3.3 %); Bosso (468 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 79, class Very extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Niger (OCHA COD-AB). 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.

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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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 OCHA COD-AB (IGNN) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-IGO)). 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.