Omala fire, January 2025 Omala, Agatu
The fire started on 28 January 2025 in Omala, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,061 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 17th largest in Kogi since 2016 (of 48 with a page). Number 141 in Nigeria in 2025, of 294.
- Burnt area
- 3,061ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 28 Jan 2025 – 1 Feb 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 28 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 102
- in a single hotspot: 47 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 883MW
- 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
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 69 ha in 2017, 2,111 ha in 2018, 2,185 ha in 2019, 1,594 ha in 2020, 2,393 ha in 2021, 2,840 ha in 2022, 2,131 ha in 2023, 2,983 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,081 ha that had burned before.
- 2,840 ha Apa fire, January 2022 12,124 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,756 ha Omala fire, January 2024 8,126 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,185 ha Omala fire, February 2019 4,801 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,067 ha Omala fire, January 2018 3,539 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,948 ha Agatu fire, January 2021 5,806 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 199 ha Omala fire, February 2020 2,481 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 45 ha Agatu fire, January 2018 2,310 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Omala where it started1,934 ha reached on 28 Jan1.2 %
-
1,147 ha reached on 28 Jan1.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jan | 37.2 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Jan | 36.3 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Jan | 36.5 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Jan | 36.4 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 1 Feb | 36.6 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Feb after | 36.8 °C | 30 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Feb after | 37.5 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Feb after | 37.6 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Feb after | 37.9 °C | 31 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 33 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 7 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 8 Feb after | 37.3 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 9 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 27 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 10 Feb after | 38.3 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Feb after | 37.9 °C | 21 % | 31 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 1 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 131 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 90: 6.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 102Every 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 2025 and 1 February 2025: 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 3,061 hectares (30.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Omala (1,934 ha, 1.2 %); Agatu (1,147 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 34 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.