Omala fire, 28 January 2024 Agatu, Omala, Apa
The fire started on 28 January 2024 in Omala, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,126 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in Kogi since 2016 (of 48 with a page). Number 3 in Nigeria in 2024, of 118.
- Burnt area
- 8,126ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 28 Jan 2024 – 8 Feb 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- local government areas
- Started on
- 28 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 346
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.6GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 172 ha in 2017, 4,007 ha in 2018, 2,996 ha in 2019, 3,186 ha in 2020, 5,962 ha in 2021, 6,829 ha in 2022, 4,873 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,887 ha that had burned before.
- 6,829 ha Apa fire, January 2022 12,124 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,434 ha Agatu fire, January 2021 5,806 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,996 ha Omala fire, February 2019 4,801 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,621 ha Omala fire, January 2018 3,539 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,410 ha Omala fire, February 2020 2,481 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,386 ha Agatu fire, January 2018 2,310 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,150 ha Agatu fire, February 2023 2,138 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 125 ha Omala fire, January 2021 2,078 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
4,580 ha reached on 26 Jan4.3 %
-
Omala where it started3,207 ha reached on 25 Jan2.0 %
-
390 ha reached on 25 Jan0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jan | 34.2 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 29 Jan | 35.0 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Jan | 36.4 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 31 Jan | 35.6 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Feb | 36.2 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Feb | 35.2 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Feb | 35.0 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 4 Feb | 35.6 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 5 Feb | 34.9 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 6 Feb | 34.5 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 7 Feb | 35.9 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 8 Feb | 36.5 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 9 Feb after | 36.2 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Feb after | 38.1 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Feb after | 39.0 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 12 Feb after | 39.1 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 13 Feb after | 40.0 °C | 22 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 14 Feb after | 39.1 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 15 Feb after | 38.2 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 16 Feb after | 38.0 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 17 Feb after | 38.2 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 18 Feb after | 37.3 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
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 · 346Every 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 Omala fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 January 2024 and 8 February 2024: 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 8,126 hectares (81.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Agatu (4,580 ha, 4.3 %); Omala (3,207 ha, 2.0 %); Apa (390 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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
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.