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Chikun fire, November 2025 Chikun

Out · last detection 3 Dec 2025, 12:46 UTC

The fire started on 19 November 2025 in Chikun, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,890 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 37th largest in Kaduna since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 158 in Nigeria in 2025, of 294.

The power measured by the satellite is low (19.7 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
2,890ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
19 Nov 2025 – 3 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
19 Nov
2025
Heat detections
88
in a single hotspot: 20 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
477MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Dec 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Nov3 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1920212224252627282930123

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
39km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,179 ha in 2020, 1,946 ha in 2021, 28 ha in 2022, 1,145 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,982 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chikun where it started
    2,908 ha reached on 15 Nov
    0.6 %

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)
19 Nov 33.4 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Nov 34.0 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Nov 34.2 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Nov 32.7 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Nov 33.6 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Nov 33.0 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Nov 33.2 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Nov 34.1 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Nov 34.4 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Nov 35.2 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Nov 34.9 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Nov 33.8 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Dec 33.9 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Dec 33.2 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Dec 34.2 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Dec after 33.5 °C 29 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Dec after 34.3 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Dec after 33.3 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Dec after 32.0 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Dec after 31.5 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Dec after 31.1 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Dec after 30.5 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Dec after 31.9 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Dec after 33.1 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Dec after 33.5 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Nov 2025
After · 10 Dec 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 1 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 125 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 84: 5.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak125 µg/m³
Days over the guideline20 days
PM10784 µg/m³
Optical depth0.73
1718192021222324252627282930123456
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 · 88Every 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 Chikun fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 November 2025 and 3 December 2025: 15 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 2,890 hectares (28.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chikun (2,908 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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
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.