Mashegu fire, 22 December 2025 Mashegu
The fire started on 22 December 2025 in Mashegu, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 42 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 41,341 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 4th largest in Niger since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 3 in Nigeria in 2025, of 294.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 41,341ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 42days
- 22 Dec 2025 – 1 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 22 Dec
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 1,417
- in a single hotspot: 49 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 187MW
- detected power per day, on average
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
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,067 ha in 2016, 1,338 ha in 2017, 620 ha in 2018, 4,333 ha in 2019, 5,972 ha in 2020, 19,149 ha in 2021, 2,900 ha in 2022, 1,604 ha in 2023, 3,889 ha in 2024, 6,289 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 33,779 ha that had burned before.
- 7,661 ha Mashegu fire, January 2021 8,608 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,357 ha Mashegu fire, January 2021 9,405 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,874 ha Mashegu fire, January 2019 4,569 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,528 ha Mashegu fire, December 2016 2,520 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,267 ha Mashegu fire, January 2020 2,444 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,621 ha Mashegu fire, December 2016 2,664 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,366 ha Mashegu fire, December 2016 2,487 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 995 ha Mashegu fire, January 2025 15,497 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Mashegu where it started41,603 ha reached on 22 Dec4.7 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Dec | 36.2 °C | 19 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Dec | 37.2 °C | 24 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Dec | 36.1 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 25 Dec | 36.5 °C | 33 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Dec | 36.8 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Dec | 36.5 °C | 26 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 28 Dec | 36.9 °C | 25 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Dec | 38.2 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Dec | 35.5 °C | 35 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 31 Dec | 37.3 °C | 27 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Jan | 38.0 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Jan | 37.4 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Jan | 36.6 °C | 32 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Jan | 37.2 °C | 24 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 5 Jan | 37.0 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Jan | 37.2 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Jan | 35.3 °C | 35 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 8 Jan | 36.1 °C | 31 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Jan | 35.9 °C | 22 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 10 Jan | 34.2 °C | 24 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 11 Jan | 34.0 °C | 24 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 12 Jan | 34.6 °C | 24 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 13 Jan | 35.9 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Jan | 35.1 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Jan | 34.8 °C | 25 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 16 Jan | 36.0 °C | 24 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Jan | 36.2 °C | 25 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 18 Jan | 35.7 °C | 31 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Jan | 36.5 °C | 29 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 20 Jan | 35.9 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 21 Jan | 33.9 °C | 15 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 22 Jan | 32.4 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 23 Jan | 35.6 °C | 13 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 24 Jan | 36.8 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 25 Jan | 37.1 °C | 14 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 26 Jan | 36.8 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 27 Jan | 35.5 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 28 Jan | 36.0 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Jan | 36.8 °C | 18 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Jan | 36.6 °C | 17 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Jan | 37.7 °C | 20 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Feb | 37.7 °C | 23 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 2 Feb after | 39.7 °C | 17 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 24 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 4 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 5 Feb after | 39.0 °C | 21 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Feb after | 38.0 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 20 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Feb after | 38.4 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 10 Feb after | 37.0 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
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 11 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 159 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 128: 8.5 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 · 1,417Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 15,497 haMashegu7 January 2025 · 30 days · 2 km away
- 4,809 haMashegu7 January 2021 · 7 days · 3 km away
- 4,569 haMasheguJanuary 2019 · 12 days · 4 km away
- 8,608 haMashegu9 January 2021 · 20 days · 5 km away
- 4,471 haMashegu2 January 2021 · 15 days · 19 km away
- 7,999 haMashegu25 December 2025 · 23 days · 22 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mashegu fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 December 2025 to 1 February 2026 (42 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 December 2025 to 29 January 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 41,341 hectares (413.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mashegu (41,603 ha, 4.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 29 January 2026 → 1 February 2026.
- Start date: 29 December 2025 → 22 December 2025.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 29 December 2025 to 29 January 2026. 1,417 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.