Ababo fire, November 2025 Ababo, Guzamn, Baso Liben
The fire started on 28 November 2025 in Ababo, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,072 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 9th largest in Oromia since 2016 (of 264 with a page). Number 12 in Ethiopia in 2025, of 127.
- Burnt area
- 8,072ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 28 Nov 2025 – 10 Dec 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Nov
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 235
- in a single hotspot: 39 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 566 ha in 2017, 1,041 ha in 2019, 63 ha in 2020, 8,645 ha in 2021, 1,620 ha in 2022, 1,982 ha in 2023, 1,470 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,091 ha that had burned before.
- 4,343 ha Ababo fire, December 2021 10,379 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,612 ha Ababo fire, February 2021 6,282 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,620 ha Abay Chomen fire, December 2022 3,661 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,470 ha Ababo fire, December 2024 2,801 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,275 ha Ababo fire, January 2021 4,086 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 442 ha Ababo fire, January 2023 2,692 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 171 ha Ababo fire, November 2017 3,118 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 53 ha Abay Chomen fire, December 2021 2,302 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ababo where it started7,604 ha reached on 21 Nov7.4 %
-
429 ha reached on 24 Nov0.4 %
-
93 ha0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Nov | 31.0 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Nov | 33.0 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 30 Nov | 31.2 °C | 20 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 1 Dec | 31.1 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 2 Dec | 31.6 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 3 Dec | 32.8 °C | 15 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 4 Dec | 32.3 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 5 Dec | 31.6 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 6 Dec | 32.5 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 7 Dec | 32.2 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Dec | 32.7 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Dec | 31.2 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Dec | 31.4 °C | 17 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 11 Dec after | 31.8 °C | 27 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Dec after | 33.0 °C | 22 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Dec after | 32.2 °C | 23 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 14 Dec after | 31.5 °C | 20 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 15 Dec after | 33.3 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Dec after | 30.7 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 17 Dec after | 31.1 °C | 26 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Dec after | 31.5 °C | 24 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Dec after | 32.3 °C | 23 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Dec after | 31.8 °C | 25 % | 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 5 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 58 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.7 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 · 235Every 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 Ababo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 November 2025 and 10 December 2025: 13 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 8,072 hectares (80.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ababo (7,604 ha, 7.4 %); Guzamn (429 ha, 0.4 %); Baso Liben (93 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.
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 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.