Agatu fire, December 2023 Agatu, Gwer West
The fire started on 22 December 2023 in Agatu, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,551 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 29th largest in Benue since 2016 (of 83 with a page). Number 47 in Nigeria in 2023, of 161.
- Burnt area
- 3,551ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 22 Dec 2023 – 26 Dec 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 22 Dec
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 133
- in a single hotspot: 74 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.0GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 453 ha in 2016, 430 ha in 2017, 1,674 ha in 2018, 1,873 ha in 2019, 1,113 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,929 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Agatu where it started2,669 ha reached on 18 Dec2.5 %
-
905 ha reached on 18 Dec0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Dec | 36.1 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 23 Dec | 36.4 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Dec | 35.7 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Dec | 35.9 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Dec | 35.4 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Dec after | 35.8 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 28 Dec after | 35.4 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 29 Dec after | 36.1 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 30 Dec after | 35.9 °C | 24 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 31 Dec after | 37.0 °C | 23 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Jan after | 36.9 °C | 22 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 2 Jan after | 36.5 °C | 27 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Jan after | 35.9 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Jan after | 35.9 °C | 34 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 30 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 133Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Agatu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 December 2023 and 26 December 2023: 5 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 3,551 hectares (35.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Agatu (2,669 ha, 2.5 %); Gwer West (905 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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
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.