Kurmi fire, January 2025 Kurmi
The fire started on 24 January 2025 in Kurmi, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,262 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 8th largest in Taraba since 2016 (of 160 with a page). Number 26 in Nigeria in 2025, of 294.
- Burnt area
- 8,262ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 24 Jan 2025 – 10 Feb 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 24 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 674
- in a single hotspot: 42 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.6GW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 95 ha in 2016, 620 ha in 2017, 2,035 ha in 2020, 1,869 ha in 2021, 1,722 ha in 2022, 4,286 ha in 2023, 6,213 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,834 ha that had burned before.
- 3,547 ha Kurmi fire, February 2024 5,917 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,706 ha Kurmi fire, March 2020 4,153 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,089 ha Kurmi fire, February 2023 2,181 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 919 ha Kurmi fire, February 2021 2,038 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 519 ha Kurmi fire, February 2021 2,044 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 61 ha Kurmi fire, February 2017 3,058 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kurmi where it started8,313 ha reached on 22 Jan1.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Jan | 37.5 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Jan | 37.1 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 26 Jan | 38.3 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 27 Jan | 37.8 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 28 Jan | 37.6 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Jan | 37.5 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 30 Jan | 37.5 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 31 Jan | 36.9 °C | 18 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 1 Feb | 37.6 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 2 Feb | 38.2 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 3 Feb | 39.3 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 Feb | 39.0 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 5 Feb | 38.1 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 6 Feb | 39.5 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Feb | 39.1 °C | 13 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 8 Feb | 39.9 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 9 Feb | 39.8 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 10 Feb | 39.7 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 11 Feb after | 39.0 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 12 Feb after | 39.2 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 13 Feb after | 39.1 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 15 Feb after | 39.1 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 16 Feb after | 39.9 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 17 Feb after | 39.9 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 18 Feb after | 40.4 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 19 Feb after | 39.3 °C | 9 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 20 Feb after | 39.9 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
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 7 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 146 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 131: 8.8 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 · 674Every 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 Kurmi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 January 2025 and 10 February 2025: 18 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 8,262 hectares (82.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kurmi (8,313 ha, 1.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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
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.