Burned area
satellite only5,327ha
Union of 2 GWIS (Copernicus) perimeters: overlapping areas count once.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 8 Jan 2025 – 28 Jan 2025
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
NG · Nigeria · –
Birnin Gwari fire, 8 January 2025 Birnin Gwari
Out · last detection 28 Jan 2025, 12:36 UTC
The fire started on 8 January 2025 in Birnin Gwari, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,327 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 4th largest in Kaduna since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 14 in Nigeria in 2025, of 67.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-27matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only21days
8 Jan 2025 to 28 Jan 2025: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 28 Jan 2025, 12:36 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only8 Jan 2025
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 8 Jan 2025
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only293
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 44 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 8 Jan 2025 – 28 Jan 2025
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only260MW
Total radiative power on 10 January 2025; hotspots that day: 23.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 10 Jan 2025
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model50.6FWI · extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 8 Jan 2025, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model37.3°C · 17% RH
High of 37.3 °C and minimum humidity of 17% on 17 January 2025; gusts of 44 km/h on 11 January 2025.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 8 Jan 2025 – 28 Jan 2025
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 1,200people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 6.5 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2025).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 21 January 2025 → 28 January 2025.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 27 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 5,327 ha
- Dates
- 8 Jan 2025 – 28 Jan 2025
- Name
- Birnin Gwari
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/birnin-gwari-2025-01?v=2026-10-27A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire birnin-gwari-2025-01.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-01-08 | 4 | 21 | 34.6 | 20 | 17 | 16.4 | 34.9 | 0 | 50.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-09 | 17 | 186 | 32.8 | 21.4 | 16 | 19 | 40.3 | 0 | 54 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-10 | 23 | 260 | 32.9 | 19.2 | 18 | 18.2 | 37.4 | 0 | 53.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-11 | 26 | 130 | 33.2 | 19.8 | 17 | 20.6 | 43.6 | 0 | 56.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-12 | 33 | 199 | 32.6 | 19.3 | 17 | 16 | 33.5 | 0 | 51.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-13 | 31 | 142 | 35 | 18.5 | 17 | 13.2 | 26.6 | 0 | 48.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-14 | 27 | 193 | 34.6 | 20 | 20 | 12.3 | 24.5 | 0 | 46.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-15 | 8 | 48 | 34.5 | 19.4 | 21 | 11.7 | 22.3 | 0 | 45.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-16 | 43 | 243 | 36.1 | 21.8 | 22 | 12.5 | 28.1 | 0 | 46.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-17 | 8 | 58 | 37.3 | 21.3 | 17 | 13.4 | 29.5 | 0 | 47.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-18 | 11 | 100 | 37.3 | 21 | 16 | 15.6 | 33.5 | 0 | 50.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-19 | 8 | 75 | 35.3 | 20.9 | 23 | 10.1 | 25.6 | 0 | 42.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-20 | 9 | 80 | 34.5 | 20.4 | 28 | 9 | 22.3 | 0 | 38.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-21 | 1 | 3 | 36.1 | 20.4 | 24 | 12.1 | 21.6 | 0 | 41.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-22 | 12 | 100 | 36 | 22.7 | 19 | 18 | 38.5 | 0 | 48.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-01-23 | 16 | 113 | 36.4 | 22.5 | 16 | 18.4 | 39.6 | 0 | 52.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-24 | 2 | 5 | 36.2 | 23.1 | 17 | 17.6 | 37.4 | 0 | 51.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-25 | 3 | 8 | 36 | 21.9 | 17 | 17.5 | 37.8 | 0 | 51.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-26 | 6 | 28 | 35.7 | 20 | 18 | 16.5 | 34.6 | 0 | 50.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-27 | 4 | 21 | 35.9 | 20.7 | 17 | 17.2 | 37.4 | 0 | 51.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-28 | 1 | 28 | 35.6 | 22.7 | 18 | 19 | 41 | 0 | 54.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-01-29 | 0 | 0 | 34.9 | 20.8 | 17 | 18.5 | 39.6 | 0 | 53.8 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-01-30 | 0 | 0 | 34.5 | 21.3 | 20 | 19 | 39.2 | 0 | 54.6 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-01-31 | 0 | 0 | 35.6 | 21.7 | 20 | 16.7 | 34.2 | 0 | 52.1 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-02-01 | 0 | 0 | 34.6 | 22.2 | 22 | 13.7 | 29.9 | 0 | 47.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-02-02 | 0 | 0 | 35.8 | 21.6 | 21 | 13.6 | 25.9 | 0 | 47.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-02-03 | 0 | 0 | 36.2 | 20.9 | 18 | 13.4 | 30.2 | 0 | 47.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-02-04 | 0 | 0 | 37.4 | 21.5 | 14 | 16.6 | 36 | 0 | 53 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-02-05 | 0 | 0 | 36.7 | 21.6 | 14 | 16.4 | 35.6 | 0 | 53 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-02-06 | 0 | 0 | 36.3 | 21.2 | 10 | 15.6 | 33.8 | 0 | 54.9 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-02-07 | 0 | 0 | 36.1 | 23.2 | 14 | 15.1 | 31.3 | 0 | 54.5 | extremo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 5,327ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 21days
- 8 Jan 2025 – 28 Jan 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 8 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 293
- in a single hotspot: 44 MW
- Danger at start
- 51
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 97MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
8 Jan28 Jan
28 Jan 2025
How it evolved, day by day
10 Jan
18 Jan
23 Jan
28 Jan
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
44km/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
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 193 ha in 2016, 102 ha in 2017, 1,273 ha in 2018, 928 ha in 2019, 632 ha in 2020, 4,390 ha in 2022, 2,655 ha in 2023, 3,678 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,097 ha that had burned before.
- 4,390 ha Birnin Gwari fire, January 2022 38,177 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,578 ha Birnin Gwari fire, January 2023 3,587 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 50 ha Birnin Gwari fire, January 2020 2,003 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Birnin Gwari where it started5,354 ha reached on 8 Jan0.8 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area6.5 ha
Residents≈ 1,200
Inside the perimeter there were about 6.5 hectares of built-up land and about 1,200 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with 60 days without rain: 42 % of the area in Nigeria
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Jan | 34.6 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 9 Jan | 32.8 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 10 Jan | 32.9 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 11 Jan | 33.2 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 12 Jan | 32.6 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 13 Jan | 35.0 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Jan | 34.6 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 15 Jan | 34.5 °C | 21 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 16 Jan | 36.1 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 17 Jan | 37.3 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Jan | 37.3 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 19 Jan | 35.3 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 20 Jan | 34.5 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 21 Jan | 36.1 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Jan | 36.0 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Jan | 36.4 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 24 Jan | 36.2 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 25 Jan | 36.0 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 26 Jan | 35.7 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Jan | 35.9 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 28 Jan | 35.6 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 29 Jan after | 34.9 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 30 Jan after | 34.5 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 31 Jan after | 35.6 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 1 Feb after | 34.6 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 2 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 3 Feb after | 36.2 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 5 Feb after | 36.7 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 6 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 7 Feb after | 36.1 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 50.6, a minimum humidity of 17% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 34.
FWI at the start
50.6
Minimum humidity
17 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Birnin Gwari fire, 8 January 2025
5,327 ha
21 days
FWI 50.6
Min. humidity 17 %
Rafi fire, December 2020
2,826 ha
22 days
FWI 50.0
Min. humidity 17 %
35 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Shiroro fire, December 2020
2,334 ha
12 days
FWI 51.5
Min. humidity 17 %
48 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Birnin Gwari fire, January 2020
2,631 ha
15 days
FWI 51.1
Min. humidity 19 %
9 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Birnin Gwari fire, January 2019
3,412 ha
7 days
FWI 49.9
Min. humidity 18 %
64 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Shiroro fire, January 2020
7,019 ha
25 days
FWI 49.1
Min. humidity 16 %
33 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 16 days
- median duration
- 2,886 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- —
- rain at the end (median; 0 of 34 had it)
It was 1.8 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 21 days, against 16 days.
Only 6 of its 34 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
44km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 28 Jan, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. None of its 34 twins had rain when they ended.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 1 Jan 2025
After · 4 Feb 2025
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 11 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 197 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 110: 7.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak197 µg/m³
Days over the guideline19 days
PM101,032 µg/m³
Optical depth1.19
WHO 15
6 Jan10 Jan14 Jan18 Jan22 Jan
Good
Fair
Moderate
Poor
Very poor
Extremely poor
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 293Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Birnin Gwari fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 January 2025 to 28 January 2025 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 January 2025 to 21 January 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,327 hectares (53.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Birnin Gwari (5,354 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 44 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 34. Their median duration was 16 days and their median area 2,886 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 6 of its 34 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 21 January 2025 → 28 January 2025.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 8 January 2025 to 21 January 2025. 293 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.