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Olorunsogo fire, January 2016 Olorunsogo, Orelope

Out · last detection 26 Jan 2016, 12:24 UTC

The fire started on 21 January 2016 in Olorunsogo, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,265 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Oyo since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 30 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

Burnt area
4,265ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
21 Jan 2016 – 26 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
21 Jan
2016
Heat detections
168
in a single hotspot: 122 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jan26 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
38km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Olorunsogo where it started
    3,755 ha reached on 14 Jan
    2.3 %
  2. Orelope
    539 ha reached on 14 Jan
    0.5 %

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)
21 Jan 33.5 °C 13 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Jan 34.2 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Jan 34.2 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Jan 31.5 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Jan 31.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Jan 29.7 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Jan after 31.1 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Jan after 30.2 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Jan after 31.2 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Jan after 31.6 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Jan after 32.7 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Feb after 33.8 °C 18 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Feb after 33.8 °C 17 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Feb after 34.5 °C 21 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Feb after 34.6 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Feb after 35.0 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Jan 2016
After · 2 Feb 2016

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 · 168Every 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 Olorunsogo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 January 2016 and 26 January 2016: 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 4,265 hectares (42.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Olorunsogo (3,755 ha, 2.3 %); Orelope (539 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.