Bokkos fire, 3 January 2026 Bokkos, Wamba
The fire started on 3 January 2026 in Bokkos, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,712 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 19th largest in Plateau since 2016 (of 35 with a page). Number 154 in Nigeria in 2026, of 262.
- Burnt area
- 2,712ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 3 Jan 2026 – 10 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 3 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 50
- in a single hotspot: 0 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 182MW
- 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 58 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
13% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 109 ha in 2018, 238 ha in 2020.
What happened to each town
-
Bokkos where it started2,350 ha1.5 %
-
378 ha0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Jan | 31.8 °C | 32 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Jan | 33.5 °C | 21 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Jan | 32.5 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Jan | 33.4 °C | 22 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Jan | 30.9 °C | 37 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 8 Jan | 30.8 °C | 39 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Jan | 33.4 °C | 16 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 10 Jan | 30.5 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Jan after | 30.9 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Jan after | 31.3 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Jan after | 32.3 °C | 21 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Jan after | 31.0 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 15 Jan after | 31.4 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Jan after | 32.2 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Jan after | 31.2 °C | 25 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Jan after | 31.3 °C | 32 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 19 Jan after | 32.3 °C | 36 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Jan after | 32.6 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 5 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 146 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 106: 7.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 0Every 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 Bokkos fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 January 2026 and 10 January 2026: 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 2,712 hectares (27.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bokkos (2,350 ha, 1.5 %); Wamba (378 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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.