Ogoja fire, January 2024 Ogoja
The fire started on 15 January 2024 in Ogoja, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,753 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 20th largest in Cross River since 2016 (of 37 with a page). Number 60 in Nigeria in 2024, of 118.
- Burnt area
- 2,753ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 15 Jan 2024 – 19 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 15 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 80
- in a single hotspot: 59 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 833MW
- 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 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 891 ha in 2018, 102 ha in 2019, 1,321 ha in 2021, 922 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,807 ha that had burned before.
- 1,321 ha Ogoja fire, January 2021 2,283 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 117 ha Ogoja fire, December 2022 2,489 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 71 ha Ogoja fire, January 2018 2,010 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ogoja where it started2,772 ha reached on 14 Jan3.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Jan | 35.1 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 16 Jan | 35.7 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Jan | 36.6 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 18 Jan | 36.4 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Jan | 36.6 °C | 19 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 15 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Jan after | 36.5 °C | 21 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 22 Jan after | 35.5 °C | 27 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Jan after | 35.6 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Jan after | 37.0 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 25 Jan after | 36.2 °C | 15 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 26 Jan after | 35.8 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 27 Jan after | 36.0 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 28 Jan after | 36.1 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 29 Jan after | 36.5 °C | 16 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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 · 80Every 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 15 January 2024 and 19 January 2024: 5 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 2,753 hectares (27.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ogoja (2,772 ha, 3.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.