Cheta fire, January 2026 Cheta, Decha
The fire started on 12 January 2026 in Cheta, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,313 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 17th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 15 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 7,313ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 12 Jan 2026 – 27 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 12 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 156
- in a single hotspot: 45 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 3 Feb.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,039 ha in 2016, 23 ha in 2017, 329 ha in 2018, 5,115 ha in 2019, 1,780 ha in 2020, 2,643 ha in 2021, 1,350 ha in 2023, 1,327 ha in 2024, 11 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,168 ha that had burned before.
- 5,689 ha Decha fire, December 2016 19,581 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,715 ha Cheta fire, January 2019 14,263 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,226 ha Decha fire, January 2021 3,151 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 415 ha Cheta fire, December 2021 2,851 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 392 ha Decha fire, January 2019 3,132 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 329 ha Decha fire, January 2018 2,551 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 308 ha Ela (Konta) SP Woreda fire, February 2016 2,407 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10 ha Cheta fire, January 2021 2,262 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Cheta where it started5,817 ha reached on 12 Jan8.7 %
-
1,543 ha reached on 12 Jan0.5 %
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 | 34.1 °C | 28 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 13 Jan | 33.3 °C | 28 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 14 Jan | 32.9 °C | 28 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Jan | 34.6 °C | 25 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 16 Jan | 33.2 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Jan | 34.6 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Jan | 35.5 °C | 31 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 19 Jan | 34.2 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 20 Jan | 35.3 °C | 31 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 21 Jan | 36.4 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 22 Jan | 35.4 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 23 Jan | 35.1 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 24 Jan | 34.8 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 25 Jan | 35.5 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 26 Jan | 35.2 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Jan | 34.3 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 34 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 29 Jan after | 33.7 °C | 33 % | 21 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 30 Jan after | 35.4 °C | 33 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Jan after | 35.3 °C | 34 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 28 |
| 1 Feb after | 34.1 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 2 Feb after | 32.9 °C | 35 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Feb after | 34.6 °C | 39 % | 19 km/h | 2.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
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 25 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 89 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 59: 3.9 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 · 156Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 19,581 haDecha30 December 2016 · 16 days · 3 km away
- 14,263 haChetaJanuary 2019 · 17 days · 15 km away
- 8,026 haEla (Konta) SP Woreda17 January 2021 · 15 days · 22 km away
- 17,621 haEla (Konta) SP Woreda22 December 2016 · 28 days · 24 km away
- 18,545 haDecha30 January 2021 · 12 days · 34 km away
- 6,479 haDecha22 January 2021 · 16 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cheta fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 January 2026 and 27 January 2026: 16 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 7,313 hectares (73.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cheta (5,817 ha, 8.7 %); Decha (1,543 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.