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Ngala fire, January 2023 Ngala, Marte

Out · last detection 26 Jan 2023, 00:33 UTC

The fire started on 19 January 2023 in Ngala, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,182 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 93th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 461 with a page). Number 32 in Nigeria in 2023, of 161.

Burnt area
4,182ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
19 Jan 2023 – 26 Jan 2023
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
19 Jan
2023
Heat detections
109
in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
861MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jan 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jan26 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

20212223242526

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
32km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,492 ha in 2016, 1,869 ha in 2017, 1,391 ha in 2018, 1,067 ha in 2019, 1,240 ha in 2020, 134 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,536 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ngala where it started
    4,146 ha reached on 20 Jan
    2.1 %
  2. Marte
    62 ha reached on 22 Jan
    0.0 %

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)
19 Jan 34.7 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Jan 34.6 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Jan 35.4 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jan 35.2 °C 8 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Jan 36.3 °C 7 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Jan 37.0 °C 7 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Jan 37.6 °C 5 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Jan 38.1 °C 4 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Jan after 40.2 °C 2 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
28 Jan after 40.4 °C 3 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Jan after 41.0 °C 3 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Jan after 40.2 °C 6 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
31 Jan after 38.5 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
1 Feb after 35.7 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
2 Feb after 34.6 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
3 Feb after 36.1 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
4 Feb after 37.6 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Feb after 37.9 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 12 Jan 2023
After · 2 Feb 2023

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 · 109Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Nigeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ngala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 January 2023 and 26 January 2023: 8 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 4,182 hectares (41.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ngala (4,146 ha, 2.1 %); Marte (62 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 32 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.

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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.