Ngala fire, 22 October 2021 Ngala
The fire started on 22 October 2021 in Ngala, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,060 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 24th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 461 with a page). Number 9 in Nigeria in 2021, of 184.
- Burnt area
- 9,060ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 22 Oct 2021 – 30 Oct 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 22 Oct
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 246
- in a single hotspot: 340 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 11.0GW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,339 ha in 2016, 3,841 ha in 2017, 1,520 ha in 2019, 1,487 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,665 ha that had burned before.
- 1,800 ha Ngala fire, October 2017 6,738 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,487 ha Ngala fire, April 2020 2,193 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,440 ha Ngala fire, January 2019 2,035 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 79 ha Ngala fire, May 2019 2,021 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ngala where it started9,108 ha reached on 22 Oct4.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Oct | 34.9 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 23 Oct | 36.9 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 24 Oct | 37.3 °C | 24 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Oct | 37.8 °C | 25 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 26 Oct | 37.9 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 27 Oct | 37.8 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Oct | 38.1 °C | 17 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 29 Oct | 38.7 °C | 19 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 30 Oct | 38.0 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 31 Oct after | 38.5 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Nov after | 38.2 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Nov after | 38.4 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 Nov after | 38.6 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 4 Nov after | 39.2 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 5 Nov after | 38.5 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 6 Nov after | 39.0 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Nov after | 38.8 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 8 Nov after | 37.8 °C | 17 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 9 Nov after | 38.6 °C | 17 % | 23 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.
Detections table · 246Every 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 Ngala fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 October 2021 and 30 October 2021: 9 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 9,060 hectares (90.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ngala (9,108 ha, 4.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class 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
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.