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Orhionmwon fire, 23 January 2016 Orhionmwon, Iguegben

Out · last detection 31 Jan 2016, 12:30 UTC

The fire started on 23 January 2016 in Orhionmwon, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,997 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in Edo since 2016 (of 78 with a page). Number 14 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.4 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
5,997ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
23 Jan 2016 – 31 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
23 Jan
2016
Heat detections
161
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
833MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jan31 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

232425262728293031

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
40km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days 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. Orhionmwon where it started
    4,476 ha reached on 23 Jan
    1.9 %
  2. Iguegben
    1,563 ha reached on 26 Jan
    4.1 %

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)
23 Jan 36.0 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Jan 34.6 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Jan 36.0 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Jan 33.8 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Jan 34.9 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Jan 34.0 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Jan 35.5 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Jan 35.8 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Jan 35.5 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Feb after 36.0 °C 21 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Feb after 35.9 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Feb after 37.1 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Feb after 37.0 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Feb after 37.1 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Feb after 37.1 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Feb after 38.1 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Feb after 36.4 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Feb after 36.1 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Feb after 37.1 °C 10 % 25 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 · 16 Jan 2016
After · 7 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 · 161Every 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 Orhionmwon fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2016 and 31 January 2016: 9 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 5,997 hectares (60.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Orhionmwon (4,476 ha, 1.9 %); Iguegben (1,563 ha, 4.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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
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.