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Ababo fire, January 2023 Ababo, Baso Liben

Out · last detection 10 Jan 2023, 22:34 UTC

The fire started on 6 January 2023 in Ababo, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,692 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 141th largest in Oromia since 2016 (of 264 with a page). Number 58 in Ethiopia in 2023, of 101.

Burnt area
2,692ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
6 Jan 2023 – 10 Jan 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
6 Jan
2023
Heat detections
124
in a single hotspot: 96 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
798MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Jan 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Jan10 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

678910

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
27km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 832 ha in 2016, 530 ha in 2017, 380 ha in 2019, 2,654 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,133 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ababo where it started
    2,704 ha reached on 5 Jan
    2.6 %
  2. Baso Liben
    6 ha reached on 9 Jan
    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)
6 Jan 33.4 °C 12 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Jan 32.4 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Jan 32.9 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Jan 33.7 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Jan 34.0 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Jan after 34.4 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Jan after 32.9 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
13 Jan after 33.4 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Jan after 34.0 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Jan after 33.5 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Jan after 33.3 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Jan after 34.0 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Jan after 32.4 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Jan after 32.3 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Jan after 33.4 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Dec 2022
After · 17 Jan 2023

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 · 124Every 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 6 January 2023 and 10 January 2023: 5 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 2,692 hectares (26.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ababo (2,704 ha, 2.6 %); Baso Liben (6 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.