Monguno fire, May 2026 Monguno
The fire started on 8 May 2026 in Monguno, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,184 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 169th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 457 with a page). Number 108 in Nigeria in 2026, of 258.
The power measured by the satellite is low (24.5 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
- 3,184ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 8 May 2026 – 19 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 8 May
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 138
- in a single hotspot: 24 MW
- Danger at start
- 72
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 928MW
- 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
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 990 ha in 2017, 2,500 ha in 2021, 2,002 ha in 2024, 841 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,814 ha that had burned before.
- 1,229 ha Darak fire, July 2021 1,259 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 990 ha Darak fire, June 2017 1,050 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 945 ha Darak fire, April 2024 1,032 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 841 ha Darak fire, June 2025 1,233 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Monguno where it started1,347 ha reached on 5 May0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 May | 42.7 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 9 May | 43.4 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 10 May | 42.6 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 11 May | 42.9 °C | 8 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 12 May | 43.7 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 13 May | 43.3 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 14 May | 43.1 °C | 9 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 15 May | 41.7 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 16 May | 41.0 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 17 May | 41.4 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.3 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 18 May | 41.0 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 19 May | 40.9 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 20 May after | 40.5 °C | 21 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 21 May after | 39.9 °C | 27 % | 26 km/h | 0.9 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 May after | 39.8 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 May after | 39.5 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 24 May after | 41.7 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 May after | 42.1 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 26 May after | 40.3 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 27 May after | 40.3 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 28 May after | 41.2 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 29 May after | 42.0 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
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 6 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 44 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 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 · 138Every 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 Monguno fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 May 2026 and 19 May 2026: 12 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 3,184 hectares (31.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Monguno (1,347 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 43.7 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 75, class Very 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.