Owo fire, 18 January 2020 Idanre, Ovia South-West, Owo
The fire started on 18 January 2020 in Owo, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,771 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Ondo since 2016 (of 23 with a page). Number 2 in Nigeria in 2020, of 150.
- Burnt area
- 20,771ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 29days
- 18 Jan 2020 – 15 Feb 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- local government areas
- Started on
- 18 Jan
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 1,720
- in a single hotspot: 230 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 16.6GW
- 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 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 16,078 ha in 2016, 4,170 ha in 2017, 6,130 ha in 2018, 9,602 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,990 ha that had burned before.
- 9,982 ha Idanre fire, January 2016 28,739 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,602 ha Idanre fire, February 2019 11,751 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,096 ha Idanre fire, February 2016 6,345 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,170 ha Ose fire, February 2017 12,653 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,891 ha Idanre fire, January 2018 3,218 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,237 ha Idanre fire, January 2018 2,546 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
20,827 ha reached on 14 Jan11 %
-
73 ha reached on 11 Feb0.0 %
-
Owo where it started6 ha reached on 13 Jan0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jan | 33.9 °C | 28 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Jan | 34.2 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Jan | 35.0 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Jan | 35.9 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 22 Jan | 36.7 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Jan | 35.7 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Jan | 35.6 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 25 Jan | 36.0 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 26 Jan | 35.9 °C | 14 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Jan | 35.3 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 28 Jan | 36.0 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Jan | 36.0 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Jan | 35.7 °C | 20 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 31 Jan | 36.1 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Feb | 36.3 °C | 15 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 2 Feb | 36.0 °C | 12 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Feb | 35.2 °C | 16 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 Feb | 34.8 °C | 26 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Feb | 35.4 °C | 33 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Feb | 36.5 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 7 Feb | 36.0 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 8 Feb | 37.2 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 9 Feb | 36.2 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Feb | 36.1 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 11 Feb | 36.5 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Feb | 35.8 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 13 Feb | 36.2 °C | 13 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 14 Feb | 37.4 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 15 Feb | 36.1 °C | 27 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 Feb after | 36.0 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 17 Feb after | 36.4 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 18 Feb after | 35.9 °C | 38 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Feb after | 37.0 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 21 Feb after | 38.1 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Feb after | 37.9 °C | 29 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Feb after | 37.9 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Feb after | 37.3 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
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 · 1,720Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 28,739 haIdanre20 January 2016 · 15 days · 1 km away
- 15,831 haIdanre16 January 2022 · 18 days · 2 km away
- 11,751 haIdanreFebruary 2019 · 12 days · 2 km away
- 6,345 haIdanreFebruary 2016 · 6 days · 4 km away
- 12,653 haOse14 February 2017 · 9 days · 10 km away
- 8,772 haIdanre14 February 2023 · 8 days · 11 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Owo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 January 2020 and 15 February 2020: 29 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 20,771 hectares (207.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Idanre (20,827 ha, 11 %); Ovia South-West (73 ha, 0.0 %); Owo (6 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.