Omala fire, February 2026 Omala, Agatu, Apa
The fire started on 12 February 2026 in Omala, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,015 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Kogi since 2016 (of 48 with a page). Number 14 in Nigeria in 2026, of 258.
- Burnt area
- 13,015ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 12 Feb 2026 – 1 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- local government areas
- Started on
- 12 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 388
- in a single hotspot: 106 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.0GW
- 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
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 574 ha in 2017, 4,472 ha in 2018, 3,384 ha in 2019, 3,458 ha in 2020, 6,267 ha in 2021, 8,981 ha in 2022, 5,155 ha in 2023, 7,585 ha in 2024, 4,767 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,485 ha that had burned before.
- 8,146 ha Apa fire, January 2022 12,124 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,300 ha Omala fire, January 2024 8,126 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,403 ha Agatu fire, January 2021 5,806 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,976 ha Omala fire, February 2019 4,801 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,944 ha Omala fire, January 2025 3,061 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,854 ha Omala fire, January 2018 3,539 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,762 ha Omala fire, February 2020 2,481 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,573 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 started5,809 ha reached on 7 Feb3.7 %
-
4,193 ha reached on 7 Feb3.9 %
-
3,098 ha reached on 19 Feb2.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Feb | 37.6 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Feb | 36.6 °C | 30 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Feb | 36.7 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Feb | 37.6 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 16 Feb | 38.6 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Feb | 34.5 °C | 39 % | 31 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Feb | 35.0 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Feb | 36.0 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 20 Feb | 36.7 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Feb | 36.9 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 22 Feb | 37.8 °C | 23 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Feb | 36.1 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Feb | 36.4 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 25 Feb | 36.5 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 26 Feb | 36.8 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 27 Feb | 36.0 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 28 Feb | 36.8 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 1 Mar | 36.9 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 2 Mar after | 37.2 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Mar after | 37.1 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Mar after | 37.0 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 5 Mar after | 37.0 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 6 Mar after | 38.6 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 7 Mar after | 38.9 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Mar after | 39.5 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 9 Mar after | 40.0 °C | 21 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 10 Mar after | 39.1 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 11 Mar after | 37.3 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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 21 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 197 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 161: 11 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 · 388Every 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 12 February 2026 and 1 March 2026: 18 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 13,015 hectares (130.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Omala (5,809 ha, 3.7 %); Agatu (4,193 ha, 3.9 %); Apa (3,098 ha, 2.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.