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Ababo fire, 18 January 2021 Ababo, Baso Liben, Guzamn

Out · last detection 23 Jan 2021, 23:16 UTC

The fire started on 18 January 2021 in Ababo, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,086 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 57th largest in Oromia since 2016 (of 264 with a page). Number 79 in Ethiopia in 2021, of 255.

Burnt area
4,086ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
18 Jan 2021 – 23 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
18 Jan
2021
Heat detections
138
in a single hotspot: 103 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Jan 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jan23 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
30km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 48 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 488 ha in 2016, 8 ha in 2017, 607 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 964 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ababo where it started
    3,797 ha reached on 12 Jan
    3.7 %
  2. Baso Liben
    298 ha reached on 12 Jan
    0.3 %
  3. Guzamn
    18 ha
    0.0 %

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 33.8 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Jan 33.7 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Jan 34.0 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Jan 34.3 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Jan 34.4 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Jan 34.0 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Jan after 33.8 °C 18 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jan after 34.2 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jan after 34.5 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Jan after 34.1 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Jan after 34.4 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Jan after 34.8 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Jan after 34.9 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Jan after 34.8 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Feb after 34.7 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Feb after 34.6 °C 11 % 26 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.

Before · 11 Jan 2021
After · 30 Jan 2021

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 · 138Every 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 Ethiopia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ababo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 January 2021 and 23 January 2021: 6 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 4,086 hectares (40.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ababo (3,797 ha, 3.7 %); Baso Liben (298 ha, 0.3 %); Guzamn (18 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ethiopia (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.

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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 ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.