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Sakaba fire, January 2022 Sakaba, Mariga

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2022, 13:08 UTC

The fire started on 5 January 2022 in Sakaba, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,306 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Kebbi since 2016 (of 42 with a page). Number 15 in Nigeria in 2022, of 125.

Burnt area
5,306ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
5 Jan 2022 – 12 Jan 2022
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
5 Jan
2022
Heat detections
268
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
922MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jan 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Jan12 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

5678910111213

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
36km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 505 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Sakaba where it started
    3,353 ha reached on 29 Dec
    2.4 %
  2. Mariga
    1,986 ha reached on 2 Jan
    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)
5 Jan 30.8 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Jan 32.9 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Jan 33.9 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Jan 34.0 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Jan 33.4 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Jan 31.9 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Jan 32.5 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Jan 32.8 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Jan after 33.5 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Jan after 34.5 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Jan after 34.3 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Jan after 32.5 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Jan after 30.6 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Jan after 29.9 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jan after 29.5 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Jan after 29.8 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Jan after 29.8 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jan after 32.0 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Dec 2021
After · 19 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 · 268Every 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 Sakaba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 January 2022 and 12 January 2022: 8 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 5,306 hectares (53.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sakaba (3,353 ha, 2.4 %); Mariga (1,986 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.