Mariga fire, 1 January 2026 Mariga
The fire started on 1 January 2026 in Mariga, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,687 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 17th largest in Niger since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 12 in Nigeria in 2026, of 262.
- Burnt area
- 14,687ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 29days
- 1 Jan 2026 – 29 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 1 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 484
- in a single hotspot: 54 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.0GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,496 ha in 2021, 6,008 ha in 2022, 6,476 ha in 2023, 936 ha in 2024, 1,965 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,206 ha that had burned before.
- 4,492 ha Mariga fire, December 2023 12,418 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,259 ha Mariga fire, December 2022 4,350 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 936 ha Mariga fire, November 2024 3,571 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 853 ha Mariga fire, December 2023 3,788 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 692 ha Mariga fire, November 2021 4,111 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 658 ha Mariga fire, November 2025 8,653 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 20 ha Mariga fire, December 2022 2,255 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mariga where it started14,794 ha reached on 28 Dec2.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | 38.0 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 2 Jan | 38.2 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 3 Jan | 36.9 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 Jan | 37.0 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 5 Jan | 36.1 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 6 Jan | 37.2 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 7 Jan | 36.6 °C | 20 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Jan | 35.5 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 9 Jan | 35.3 °C | 13 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 10 Jan | 33.3 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 11 Jan | 34.1 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 12 Jan | 34.1 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 13 Jan | 34.8 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 14 Jan | 33.6 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 15 Jan | 34.5 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 16 Jan | 36.2 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 17 Jan | 36.3 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 18 Jan | 36.1 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Jan | 35.1 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 20 Jan | 35.0 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 21 Jan | 33.7 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Jan | 31.7 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 23 Jan | 34.9 °C | 16 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Jan | 36.3 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 25 Jan | 36.1 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 26 Jan | 35.5 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 27 Jan | 34.4 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 28 Jan | 35.3 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 29 Jan | 36.2 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 30 Jan after | 36.3 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 31 Jan after | 37.5 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 1 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 13 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 2 Feb after | 38.3 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 3 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 4 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 5 Feb after | 39.1 °C | 11 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 6 Feb after | 36.8 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 7 Feb after | 36.7 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Feb after | 38.9 °C | 12 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
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 10 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 204 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 137: 9.1 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 · 484Every 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 Mariga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 January 2026 and 29 January 2026: 29 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 14,687 hectares (146.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mariga (14,794 ha, 2.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.