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Ayamelum fire, January 2024 Ayamelum

Out · last detection 30 Jan 2024, 13:00 UTC

The fire started on 25 January 2024 in Ayamelum, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,923 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 7th largest in Anambra since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 50 in Nigeria in 2024, of 118.

Burnt area
2,923ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
25 Jan 2024 – 30 Jan 2024
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
25 Jan
2024
Heat detections
86
in a single hotspot: 43 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
647MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Jan 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jan30 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2526282930

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
39km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,166 ha in 2016, 2,231 ha in 2017, 544 ha in 2018, 100 ha in 2022, 1,029 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,742 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ayamelum where it started
    2,942 ha reached on 25 Jan
    5.3 %

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)
25 Jan 37.4 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Jan 37.0 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Jan 37.8 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Jan 37.8 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Jan 37.5 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Jan 38.1 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Jan after 37.4 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Feb after 38.9 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Feb after 38.0 °C 5 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Feb after 38.1 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Feb after 38.8 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Feb after 38.4 °C 7 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
6 Feb after 37.8 °C 7 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
7 Feb after 38.8 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Feb after 38.6 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Feb after 36.9 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jan 2024
After · 6 Feb 2024

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 · 86Every 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 Ayamelum fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 January 2024 and 30 January 2024: 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 2,923 hectares (29.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ayamelum (2,942 ha, 5.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.