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Bambasi fire, February 2016 Assosa, Bambasi

Out · last detection 21 Feb 2016, 10:55 UTC

The fire started on 9 February 2016 in Bambasi, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,124 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 25th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 19 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

Burnt area
11,124ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
9 Feb 2016 – 21 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
9 Feb
2016
Heat detections
335
in a single hotspot: 183 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Feb21 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
40km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Assosa
    8,306 ha reached on 10 Feb
    2.8 %
  2. Bambasi where it started
    2,884 ha reached on 2 Feb
    2.2 %

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)
2 Feb 28.2 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Feb 29.4 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Feb 29.5 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Feb 29.0 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Feb 29.4 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Feb 29.0 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Feb 29.4 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Feb 30.7 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Feb 29.4 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Feb 30.0 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Feb 30.6 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Feb 30.5 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Feb 30.4 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Feb 31.2 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Feb 31.3 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Feb 30.4 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Feb 30.3 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Feb 31.8 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Feb 31.9 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Feb 31.1 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Feb after 30.1 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Feb after 30.2 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Feb after 31.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Feb after 32.1 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Feb after 31.8 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Feb after 31.8 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Feb after 31.7 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Feb after 31.5 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Mar after 30.5 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Mar after 30.7 °C 22 % 33 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 · 2 Feb 2016
After · 28 Feb 2016

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 · 335Every 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 Bambasi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 February 2016 and 21 February 2016: 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 11,124 hectares (111.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Assosa (8,306 ha, 2.8 %); Bambasi (2,884 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.