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Donga fire, 8 January 2026 Donga, Bali

Out · last detection 29 Jan 2026, 13:18 UTC

The fire started on 8 January 2026 in Donga, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,631 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Taraba since 2016 (of 160 with a page). Number 43 in Nigeria in 2026, of 258.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.0 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
5,631ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
8 Jan 2026 – 28 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
8 Jan
2026
Heat detections
189
in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
905MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Jan 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Jan28 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

89101112131415161718202123242526272829

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
30km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 833 ha in 2017, 990 ha in 2019, 2,263 ha in 2020, 75 ha in 2021, 47 ha in 2022, 885 ha in 2024, 954 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,761 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Donga where it started
    3,697 ha reached on 3 Jan
    1.2 %
  2. Bali
    1,967 ha reached on 4 Jan
    0.2 %

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)
8 Jan 34.1 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Jan 37.7 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Jan 36.4 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Jan 36.0 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Jan 36.6 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Jan 36.9 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Jan 35.0 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Jan 36.1 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Jan 37.2 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Jan 37.3 °C 19 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Jan 36.2 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jan 36.4 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Jan 35.2 °C 44 % 26 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 16
21 Jan 35.3 °C 41 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
22 Jan 34.5 °C 44 % 26 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 19
23 Jan 37.2 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Jan 36.0 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Jan 36.8 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Jan 36.5 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Jan 36.3 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Jan 35.9 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Jan after 36.9 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Jan after 35.1 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Jan after 36.6 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Feb after 37.1 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
2 Feb after 39.3 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Feb after 38.8 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Feb after 36.5 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Feb after 38.7 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Feb after 37.5 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
7 Feb after 36.8 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Jan 2026
After · 4 Feb 2026

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 30 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 108 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 95: 6.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak108 µg/m³
Days over the guideline26 days
PM10327 µg/m³
Optical depth1.04
678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
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 · 189Every 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 Donga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 January 2026 and 28 January 2026: 21 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 5,631 hectares (56.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Donga (3,697 ha, 1.2 %); Bali (1,967 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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
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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.