Oti fire, 14 January 2026 Oti
The fire started on 14 January 2026 in Oti, Togo, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,771 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 4th largest in Savanes since 2016 (of 78 with a page). Number 8 in Togo in 2026, of 54.
- Burnt area
- 3,771ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 14 Jan 2026 – 2 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- prefectures
- Started on
- 14 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 84
- in a single hotspot: 54 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 521MW
- 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
44% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 47 ha in 2017, 1,562 ha in 2021, 193 ha in 2022, 347 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,654 ha that had burned before.
- 1,562 ha Oti fire, January 2021 2,739 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 347 ha Oti fire, February 2024 1,308 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 193 ha Chereponi fire, January 2022 2,265 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 47 ha Chereponi fire, December 2017 7,474 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Oti where it started3,639 ha reached on 14 Jan0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jan | 37.2 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Jan | 37.2 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 16 Jan | 36.5 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 17 Jan | 36.0 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Jan | 36.8 °C | 14 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Jan | 37.5 °C | 13 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 20 Jan | 36.1 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 21 Jan | 34.1 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 22 Jan | 34.0 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 23 Jan | 35.0 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 24 Jan | 36.6 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 25 Jan | 36.7 °C | 9 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 26 Jan | 35.9 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 27 Jan | 36.8 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 28 Jan | 36.7 °C | 13 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 29 Jan | 37.0 °C | 13 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 30 Jan | 38.6 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 31 Jan | 38.0 °C | 10 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 1 Feb | 38.9 °C | 18 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 2 Feb | 38.8 °C | 20 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 3 Feb after | 36.6 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 4 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 18 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Feb after | 40.6 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 6 Feb after | 39.0 °C | 20 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 7 Feb after | 38.8 °C | 25 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Feb after | 40.1 °C | 20 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 9 Feb after | 39.9 °C | 18 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 10 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 11 Feb after | 37.9 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 12 Feb after | 39.1 °C | 25 % | 29 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 12 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 116 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 93: 6.2 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 · 84Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,213 haOti22 January 2026 · 10 days · 8 km away
- 7,474 haChereponi23 December 2017 · 2 days · 12 km away
- 3,267 haChereponi2 January 2019 · 4 days · 23 km away
- 4,984 haOti17 January 2021 · 18 days · 31 km away
- 9,413 haGushegu18 January 2024 · 9 days · 39 km away
- 4,710 haGushegu7 January 2023 · 4 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Oti fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 January 2026 to 2 February 2026 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 January 2026 to 28 January 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,771 hectares (37.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Oti (3,639 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Togo (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.
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-ShareAlike 2.0). 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.