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Ngaski fire, January 2025 Shanga, Ngaski

Out · last detection 31 Jan 2025, 00:34 UTC

The fire started on 20 January 2025 in Ngaski, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,864 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 24th largest in Kebbi since 2016 (of 42 with a page). Number 160 in Nigeria in 2025, of 294.

Burnt area
2,864ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
20 Jan 2025 – 31 Jan 2025
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
20 Jan
2025
Heat detections
99
in a single hotspot: 41 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
642MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Jan 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jan31 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

20212324262728293031

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
38km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 931 ha in 2022, 2,185 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,260 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Shanga
    1,985 ha reached on 18 Jan
    0.7 %
  2. Ngaski where it started
    896 ha reached on 16 Jan
    0.3 %

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)
20 Jan 35.0 °C 26 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Jan 36.4 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jan 36.2 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Jan 36.7 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Jan 36.6 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Jan 35.9 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Jan 34.7 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Jan 35.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Jan 35.5 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Jan 34.6 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Jan 34.8 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Jan 35.3 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Feb after 34.8 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Feb after 35.4 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Feb after 36.5 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Feb after 37.1 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
5 Feb after 36.6 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
6 Feb after 36.6 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Feb after 35.7 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Feb after 36.4 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Feb after 37.0 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
10 Feb after 37.2 °C 15 % 34 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.

Before · 13 Jan 2025
After · 7 Feb 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 30 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 227 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 142: 9.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak227 µg/m³
Days over the guideline17 days
PM101,118 µg/m³
Optical depth1.64
1819202122232425262728293031123
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 99Every 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 Ngaski fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 January 2025 and 31 January 2025: 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 2,864 hectares (28.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Shanga (1,985 ha, 0.7 %); Ngaski (896 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.