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NG · Nigeria · –

Yewa North fire, February 2024 Yewa North

Out · last detection 14 Feb 2024, 13:19 UTC

The fire started on 3 February 2024 in Yewa North, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,355 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

Number 40 in Nigeria in 2024, of 118.

Burnt area
3,355ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
3 Feb 2024 – 14 Feb 2024
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
3 Feb
2024
Heat detections
112
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
84MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Feb14 Feb
14 Feb 2024

How it evolved, day by day

3 Feb 2024 · 521 MW · 59 4 Feb 2024 · 66 MW · 18 5 Feb 2024 · 73 MW · 13 6 Feb 2024 · 32 MW · 9 7 Feb 2024 · 37 MW · 6 8 Feb 2024 · 5 MW · 2 12 Feb 2024 · 3 MW · 1 13 Feb 2024 · 10 MW · 2 14 Feb 2024 · 12 MW · 2
3 Feb 5 Feb 7 Feb 12 Feb 14 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
37km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 15 Feb.

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 720 ha in 2020, 848 ha in 2021, 715 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,402 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.1% of the area of London (34 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Yewa North where it started
    3,376 ha reached on 3 Feb
    1.9 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area0.62 ha
Residents≈ 60

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.62 hectares of built-up land and about 60 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
3 Feb 37.1 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Feb 36.9 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Feb 37.7 °C 11 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Feb 37.0 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Feb 37.7 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Feb 37.4 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Feb 36.7 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Feb 36.5 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
11 Feb 37.3 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
12 Feb 37.7 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
13 Feb 37.9 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.6 mm High 30
14 Feb 38.1 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
15 Feb after 35.9 °C 48 % 33 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 18

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 43.9, a minimum humidity of 15% and 23 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 40.

FWI at the start 43.9
Minimum humidity 15 %
Days without rain 23
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Kloto fire, February 2020
1,367 ha 9 days FWI 41.2 Min. humidity 14 % 246 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.6 mm on 20 Feb.

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
1,526 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 7 of 40 had it)

It was 2.2 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 12 days, against 10 days.

Only 2 of its 40 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 33 of 40, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.5 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

1.9 mmfirst rain
15 Febthe day after it ended
37km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 14 Feb, and on 15 Feb 1.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 7 of 40, with a median of 2.5 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 27 Jan 2024
After · 21 Feb 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 7 February 2024 the air beside the fire reached 261 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 199: 13 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak261 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10635 µg/m³
Optical depth1.61
1 Feb3 Feb5 Feb7 Feb9 Feb
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 112Every 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 Yewa North fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 February 2024 to 14 February 2024 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 February 2024 to 7 February 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,355 hectares (33.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yewa North (3,376 ha, 1.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 40. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 1,526 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 2 of its 40 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 33 of 40, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.5 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 7 February 2024 → 14 February 2024.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 3 February 2024 to 7 February 2024. 112 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.