Amuru fire, December 2025 Amuru, Debre Elias
The fire started on 28 December 2025 in Amuru, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,353 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 92th largest in Oromia since 2016 (of 264 with a page). Number 45 in Ethiopia in 2025, of 127.
- Burnt area
- 3,353ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 28 Dec 2025 – 31 Dec 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Dec
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 89
- in a single hotspot: 32 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 575MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,384 ha in 2016, 1,253 ha in 2017, 1 ha in 2018, 2,421 ha in 2019, 557 ha in 2020, 4,387 ha in 2021, 1,221 ha in 2022, 589 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,359 ha that had burned before.
- 2,561 ha Amuru fire, December 2021 4,169 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,421 ha Amuru fire, January 2019 3,930 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,802 ha Amuru fire, January 2021 3,830 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 907 ha Amuru fire, December 2017 3,441 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 338 ha Debre Elias fire, November 2017 3,338 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1 ha Dembecha fire, December 2018 10,555 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Amuru where it started3,116 ha reached on 27 Dec2.7 %
-
259 ha reached on 28 Dec0.2 %
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 Dec | 32.3 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Dec | 29.7 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 30 Dec | 29.9 °C | 26 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 31 Dec | 32.0 °C | 27 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Jan after | 30.0 °C | 29 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Jan after | 29.1 °C | 26 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Jan after | 31.3 °C | 28 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 4 Jan after | 30.1 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Jan after | 29.6 °C | 22 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Jan after | 30.2 °C | 18 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 7 Jan after | 30.2 °C | 22 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Jan after | 30.9 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Jan after | 29.5 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Jan after | 29.1 °C | 22 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
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 27 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 55 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 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 · 89Every 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 Amuru fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 December 2025 and 31 December 2025: 4 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 3,353 hectares (33.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Amuru (3,116 ha, 2.7 %); Debre Elias (259 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.