Ogoja fire, February 2019 Ogoja, Ikom
The fire started on 7 February 2019 in Ogoja, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,069 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 6th largest in Cross River since 2016 (of 37 with a page). Number 18 in Nigeria in 2019, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 4,069ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 7 Feb 2019 – 18 Feb 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 7 Feb
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 124
- in a single hotspot: 50 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 876MW
- 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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 22 Feb.
This area had burned before
78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,847 ha in 2016, 451 ha in 2017, 1,918 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,180 ha that had burned before.
- 1,918 ha Ogoja fire, January 2018 5,222 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,598 ha Ogoja fire, January 2016 3,514 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 249 ha Ogoja fire, January 2016 3,628 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ogoja where it started3,929 ha reached on 7 Feb4.3 %
-
166 ha reached on 16 Feb0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Feb | 36.6 °C | 12 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 8 Feb | 35.7 °C | 15 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 9 Feb | 37.0 °C | 8 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Feb | 36.9 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 11 Feb | 36.6 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Feb | 37.1 °C | 13 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 13 Feb | 37.2 °C | 16 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 14 Feb | 37.0 °C | 8 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 15 Feb | 36.9 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 16 Feb | 37.5 °C | 7 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 17 Feb | 36.9 °C | 22 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 18 Feb | 38.2 °C | 12 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Feb after | 38.1 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 20 Feb after | 38.8 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 21 Feb after | 38.4 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Feb after | 36.5 °C | 48 % | 36 km/h | 3.6 mm | Moderate 12 |
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 · 124Every 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 Ogoja fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 February 2019 and 18 February 2019: 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 4,069 hectares (40.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ogoja (3,929 ha, 4.3 %); Ikom (166 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very 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.