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Rafi fire, 13 January 2022 Rafi, Bosso

Out · last detection 19 Jan 2022, 12:55 UTC

The fire started on 13 January 2022 in Rafi, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,707 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 108th largest in Niger since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 29 in Nigeria in 2022, of 125.

Burnt area
3,707ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
13 Jan 2022 – 18 Jan 2022
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
13 Jan
2022
Heat detections
127
in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
540MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jan 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jan18 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
41km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,319 ha in 2018, 1,399 ha in 2020, 3,116 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,015 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Rafi where it started
    3,692 ha reached on 6 Jan
    1.0 %
  2. Bosso
    36 ha
    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)
13 Jan 35.2 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Jan 36.6 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Jan 36.4 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jan 35.1 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Jan 33.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Jan 32.3 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
19 Jan after 32.2 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan after 33.1 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
21 Jan after 32.9 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Jan after 34.5 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Jan after 34.2 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Jan after 35.0 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Jan after 33.3 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Jan after 34.5 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Jan after 33.8 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Jan after 33.9 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Jan 2022
After · 25 Jan 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 · 127Every 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 13 January 2022 and 18 January 2022: 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 3,707 hectares (37.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rafi (3,692 ha, 1.0 %); Bosso (36 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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
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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.