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Ogoja fire, 17 January 2018 Ogoja, Ikom

Out · last detection 26 Jan 2018, 12:15 UTC

The fire started on 17 January 2018 in Ogoja, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,222 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Cross River since 2016 (of 37 with a page). Number 5 in Nigeria in 2018, of 63.

Burnt area
5,222ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
17 Jan 2018 – 25 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
17 Jan
2018
Heat detections
200
in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jan25 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

17181920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
40km/h · peak gust
2%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,307 ha in 2016, 939 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,927 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ogoja where it started
    4,569 ha reached on 13 Jan
    5.0 %
  2. Ikom
    687 ha reached on 22 Jan
    0.4 %

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)
17 Jan 37.9 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Jan 37.6 °C 10 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Jan 37.1 °C 12 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Jan 37.4 °C 16 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Jan 37.8 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Jan 39.0 °C 5 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Jan 37.7 °C 6 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Jan 35.3 °C 2 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Jan 36.9 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
26 Jan after 37.6 °C 9 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Jan after 37.6 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Jan after 38.3 °C 12 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Jan after 37.8 °C 7 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Jan after 37.8 °C 8 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Jan after 38.6 °C 6 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
1 Feb after 38.2 °C 6 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Feb after 39.5 °C 20 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Feb after 38.9 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Feb after 39.3 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Jan 2018
After · 1 Feb 2018

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 · 200Every 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 Ogoja fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 January 2018 and 25 January 2018: 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 5,222 hectares (52.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ogoja (4,569 ha, 5.0 %); Ikom (687 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 2 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.