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Shiroro fire, January 2016 Shiroro

Out · last detection 17 Jan 2016, 13:34 UTC

The fire started on 10 January 2016 in Shiroro, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,166 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 140th largest in Niger since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 64 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

The power measured by the satellite is low (17.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,166ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
10 Jan 2016 – 16 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
10 Jan
2016
Heat detections
154
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
402MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jan16 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

1011121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
43km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Shiroro where it started
    3,190 ha reached on 5 Jan
    0.7 %

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)
10 Jan 34.7 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Jan 34.7 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Jan 33.7 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Jan 32.9 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Jan 32.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Jan 33.6 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Jan 33.0 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
17 Jan after 33.7 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Jan after 33.6 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Jan after 32.8 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Jan after 31.8 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Jan after 32.5 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Jan after 33.6 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Jan after 31.6 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Jan after 29.5 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
25 Jan after 29.7 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
26 Jan after 28.6 °C 15 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Jan 2016
After · 23 Jan 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 · 154Every 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 Shiroro fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 January 2016 and 16 January 2016: 7 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 3,166 hectares (31.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Shiroro (3,190 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.