Cheta fire, January 2019 Cheta, Ela (Konta) SP Woreda
The fire started on 13 January 2019 in Cheta, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,263 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 7th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 9 in Ethiopia in 2019, of 220.
- Burnt area
- 14,263ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 13 Jan 2019 – 29 Jan 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 13 Jan
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 584
- in a single hotspot: 120 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.4GW
- 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 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
75% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,559 ha in 2016, 1,074 ha in 2017, 683 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,758 ha that had burned before.
- 4,065 ha Decha fire, December 2016 19,581 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,831 ha Ela (Konta) SP Woreda fire, February 2016 2,407 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,512 ha Ela (Konta) SP Woreda fire, December 2016 17,621 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Cheta where it started13,625 ha reached on 12 Jan20 %
-
729 ha reached on 14 Jan0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Jan | 36.7 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Jan | 36.5 °C | 13 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 Jan | 36.8 °C | 17 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Jan | 36.7 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Jan | 36.5 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Jan | 36.8 °C | 24 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Jan | 36.3 °C | 27 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 19 Jan | 34.8 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Jan | 35.8 °C | 27 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Jan | 36.4 °C | 26 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 22 Jan | 35.8 °C | 26 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 23 Jan | 36.6 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 24 Jan | 35.9 °C | 27 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 25 Jan | 37.4 °C | 20 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Jan | 37.1 °C | 24 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Jan | 37.2 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Jan | 38.0 °C | 26 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Jan | 36.4 °C | 28 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 30 Jan after | 36.5 °C | 25 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 31 Jan after | 37.2 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Feb after | 37.7 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 2 Feb after | 36.8 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 3 Feb after | 37.0 °C | 22 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Feb after | 38.6 °C | 18 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 5 Feb after | 38.4 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 24 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 7 Feb after | 37.9 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Feb after | 35.9 °C | 27 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Feb after | 37.3 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 29 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Feb after | 38.1 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Feb after | 37.3 °C | 25 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Feb after | 34.2 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 15 Feb after | 35.6 °C | 31 % | 20 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
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.
Detections table · 584Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 17,621 haEla (Konta) SP Woreda22 December 2016 · 28 days · 11 km away
- 8,026 haEla (Konta) SP Woreda17 January 2021 · 15 days · 12 km away
- 19,581 haDecha30 December 2016 · 16 days · 18 km away
- 18,505 haEla (Konta) SP Woreda10 January 2019 · 9 days · 28 km away
- 20,202 haEla (Konta) SP Woreda29 December 2016 · 20 days · 31 km away
- 18,545 haDecha30 January 2021 · 12 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cheta fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 January 2019 and 29 January 2019: 17 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 14,263 hectares (142.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cheta (13,625 ha, 20 %); Ela (Konta) SP Woreda (729 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.
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.