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Rafi fire, 4 January 2021 Rafi, Bosso

Out · last detection 30 Jan 2021, 13:31 UTC

The fire started on 4 January 2021 in Rafi, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,153 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Niger since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 2 in Nigeria in 2021, of 184.

Burnt area
23,153ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
4 Jan 2021 – 29 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
4 Jan
2021
Heat detections
1,202
in a single hotspot: 119 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
9.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Jan 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jan29 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
47km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 905 ha in 2016, 3,009 ha in 2018, 7,099 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,703 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Rafi where it started
    23,280 ha reached on 29 Dec
    6.0 %
  2. Bosso
    5 ha reached on 3 Feb
    0.0 %

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)
4 Jan 37.9 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Jan 37.9 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
6 Jan 38.1 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Jan 37.9 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
8 Jan 36.9 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Jan 37.4 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Jan 37.1 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Jan 36.3 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Jan 35.9 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Jan 36.6 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Jan 35.7 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Jan 35.0 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Jan 34.7 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Jan 35.5 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
18 Jan 35.4 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Jan 34.0 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Jan 34.1 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
21 Jan 33.3 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Jan 33.0 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Jan 33.4 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Jan 35.4 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Jan 36.0 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Jan 36.6 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Jan 36.7 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Jan 36.5 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Jan 35.7 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
30 Jan after 35.3 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Jan after 35.3 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Feb after 36.3 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Feb after 35.7 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Feb after 36.5 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
4 Feb after 36.0 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
5 Feb after 35.6 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
6 Feb after 35.6 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
7 Feb after 36.6 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Feb after 36.6 °C 6 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Dec 2020
After · 5 Feb 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 · 1,202Every 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 Rafi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 January 2021 and 29 January 2021: 26 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 23,153 hectares (231.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rafi (23,280 ha, 6.0 %); Bosso (5 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.