Ngala fire, January 2024 Ngala, Dikwa
The fire started on 12 January 2024 in Ngala, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,485 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 141th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 461 with a page). Number 34 in Nigeria in 2024, of 118.
The power measured by the satellite is low (20.2 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
- 3,485ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 12 Jan 2024 – 17 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 12 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 88
- in a single hotspot: 20 MW
- Danger at start
- 57
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 382MW
- 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
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 586 ha in 2016, 2,241 ha in 2017, 1,255 ha in 2019, 1,552 ha in 2020, 784 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,113 ha that had burned before.
- 2,241 ha Ngala fire, October 2017 6,738 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,552 ha Ngala fire, April 2020 2,852 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,255 ha Dikwa fire, April 2019 2,512 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 784 ha Ngala fire, November 2021 3,249 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ngala where it started3,491 ha reached on 12 Jan1.7 %
-
13 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Jan | 33.3 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 13 Jan | 32.8 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 14 Jan | 32.9 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 15 Jan | 31.2 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 16 Jan | 30.9 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 17 Jan | 31.2 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 18 Jan after | 32.3 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 19 Jan after | 33.2 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 20 Jan after | 33.9 °C | 10 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 21 Jan after | 34.1 °C | 6 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 22 Jan after | 35.0 °C | 8 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 23 Jan after | 35.5 °C | 9 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 24 Jan after | 31.6 °C | 14 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 25 Jan after | 29.5 °C | 18 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 26 Jan after | 28.0 °C | 17 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 27 Jan after | 28.4 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
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 · 88Every 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 12 January 2024 and 17 January 2024: 6 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 3,485 hectares (34.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ngala (3,491 ha, 1.7 %); Dikwa (13 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 37 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.