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Omala fire, January 2018 Omala, Agatu

Out · last detection 27 Jan 2018, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 22 January 2018 in Omala, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,539 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Kogi since 2016 (of 48 with a page). Number 17 in Nigeria in 2018, of 63.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,539ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
22 Jan 2018 – 27 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
22 Jan
2018
Heat detections
109
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
621MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jan27 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

222324252627

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
40km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 304 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Omala where it started
    2,647 ha reached on 22 Jan
    1.7 %
  2. Agatu
    915 ha reached on 22 Jan
    0.8 %

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)
22 Jan 36.9 °C 6 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Jan 36.3 °C 7 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Jan 33.2 °C 5 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Jan 34.6 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Jan 36.2 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Jan 35.8 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Jan after 36.7 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Jan after 36.6 °C 7 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Jan after 35.7 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Jan after 36.6 °C 6 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
1 Feb after 36.3 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
2 Feb after 37.8 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Feb after 37.8 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Feb after 39.0 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Feb after 39.2 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Feb after 39.8 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jan 2018
After · 3 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 · 109Every 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 Omala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 January 2018 and 27 January 2018: 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 3,539 hectares (35.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Omala (2,647 ha, 1.7 %); Agatu (915 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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
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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.