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Cheha fire, January 2017 Sekoru, Abeshege, Cheha

Out · last detection 19 Jan 2017, 22:46 UTC

The fire started on 10 January 2017 in Cheha, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,746 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 46th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 90 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.0 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
3,746ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
10 Jan 2017 – 19 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
10 Jan
2017
Heat detections
135
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
442MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jan19 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415161819

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
32km/h · peak gust
12%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. Sekoru
    2,196 ha reached on 5 Jan
    2.4 %
  2. Abeshege
    1,242 ha reached on 11 Jan
    2.2 %
  3. Cheha where it started
    334 ha reached on 5 Jan
    0.6 %

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)
10 Jan 32.6 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Jan 32.5 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Jan 31.8 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Jan 32.5 °C 13 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Jan 33.0 °C 12 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Jan 33.4 °C 12 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Jan 34.2 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Jan 33.5 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Jan 33.1 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Jan 33.3 °C 13 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Jan after 32.2 °C 15 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Jan after 33.0 °C 24 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Jan after 34.0 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Jan after 34.5 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Jan after 33.7 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jan after 33.9 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Jan after 33.2 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jan after 33.7 °C 21 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Jan after 33.5 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Jan after 33.2 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Jan 2017
After · 26 Jan 2017

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 · 135Every 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 Cheha fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 January 2017 and 19 January 2017: 10 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 3,746 hectares (37.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sekoru (2,196 ha, 2.4 %); Abeshege (1,242 ha, 2.2 %); Cheha (334 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.