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Bulen fire, 8 January 2021 Bulen, Wenbera

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2021, 23:03 UTC

The fire started on 8 January 2021 in Bulen, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,779 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 389th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 146 in Ethiopia in 2021, of 255.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,779ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
8 Jan 2021 – 13 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
8 Jan
2021
Heat detections
65
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
283MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jan 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Jan13 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

8910111213

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
20%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 394 ha in 2016, 4 ha in 2017, 2,251 ha in 2018, 741 ha in 2019, 1,310 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,436 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bulen where it started
    2,795 ha reached on 8 Jan
    0.9 %
  2. Wenbera
    6 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)
8 Jan 33.6 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Jan 31.5 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Jan 31.9 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Jan 31.9 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Jan 32.3 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Jan 32.6 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Jan after 32.3 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Jan after 32.7 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Jan after 33.7 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Jan after 33.4 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Jan after 33.8 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Jan after 34.9 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Jan after 33.0 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Jan after 33.6 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jan after 33.6 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Jan after 33.2 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Jan 2021
After · 20 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 · 65Every 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 Bulen fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 January 2021 and 13 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 2,779 hectares (27.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bulen (2,795 ha, 0.9 %); Wenbera (6 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 30 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.

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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.