Ussa fire, 8 January 2026 Ussa
The fire started on 8 January 2026 in Ussa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,872 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 12th largest in Taraba since 2016 (of 160 with a page). Number 36 in Nigeria in 2026, of 258.
- Burnt area
- 6,872ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 21days
- 8 Jan 2026 – 28 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 8 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 245
- in a single hotspot: 41 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- 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 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,200 ha in 2016, 403 ha in 2017, 1,309 ha in 2018, 525 ha in 2019, 2,342 ha in 2020, 1,869 ha in 2021, 126 ha in 2022, 869 ha in 2023, 1 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,606 ha that had burned before.
- 1,408 ha Ussa fire, January 2021 2,042 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,373 ha Ussa fire, January 2020 3,548 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,028 ha Ussa fire, December 2016 2,156 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 702 ha Ussa fire, January 2018 2,159 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 478 ha Ussa fire, January 2019 2,185 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 305 ha Ussa fire, December 2023 2,219 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 47 ha Ussa fire, January 2019 2,822 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ussa where it started6,917 ha reached on 5 Jan7.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Jan | 33.6 °C | 41 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 9 Jan | 37.2 °C | 12 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 10 Jan | 36.1 °C | 14 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Jan | 35.6 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 12 Jan | 36.1 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Jan | 36.3 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 14 Jan | 34.2 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Jan | 35.3 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 Jan | 36.2 °C | 23 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Jan | 36.2 °C | 19 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Jan | 35.8 °C | 34 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Jan | 35.8 °C | 40 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Jan | 35.8 °C | 38 % | 22 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 26 |
| 21 Jan | 35.3 °C | 39 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 22 Jan | 34.2 °C | 43 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 23 Jan | 36.9 °C | 19 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Jan | 35.8 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 25 Jan | 36.6 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Jan | 36.6 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Jan | 36.2 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 28 Jan | 35.4 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 29 Jan after | 36.6 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 30 Jan after | 35.3 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 31 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 27 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 1 Feb after | 36.6 °C | 33 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 2 Feb after | 38.6 °C | 22 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 3 Feb after | 38.8 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 4 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Feb after | 38.1 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Feb after | 36.2 °C | 34 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
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 30 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 114 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 97: 6.5 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 · 245Every 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 Ussa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 January 2026 and 28 January 2026: 21 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 6,872 hectares (68.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ussa (6,917 ha, 7.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 28 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.