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Darimu fire, 11 January 2017 Darimu, Bilo Nopha, Metu Zuria

Out · last detection 18 Jan 2017, 23:05 UTC

The fire started on 11 January 2017 in Darimu, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,459 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 86th largest in Oromia since 2016 (of 264 with a page). Number 106 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
3,459ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
11 Jan 2017 – 17 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
11 Jan
2017
Heat detections
131
in a single hotspot: 55 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
814MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jan17 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415161718

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
24km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,068 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Darimu where it started
    3,014 ha reached on 11 Jan
    2.2 %
  2. Bilo Nopha
    318 ha reached on 16 Jan
    1.0 %
  3. Metu Zuria
    149 ha reached on 14 Jan
    0.2 %

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)
11 Jan 32.9 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Jan 32.4 °C 7 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Jan 32.2 °C 14 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Jan 32.6 °C 16 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Jan 33.1 °C 16 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Jan 33.9 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Jan 33.0 °C 18 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Jan after 32.9 °C 15 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Jan after 32.9 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Jan after 31.8 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Jan after 32.6 °C 19 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Jan after 33.6 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Jan after 33.9 °C 19 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Jan after 33.2 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Jan after 32.4 °C 21 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Jan after 31.9 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Jan after 34.1 °C 21 % 29 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 · 4 Jan 2017
After · 24 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 · 131Every 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 Darimu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 January 2017 and 17 January 2017: 7 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 3,459 hectares (34.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Darimu (3,014 ha, 2.2 %); Bilo Nopha (318 ha, 1.0 %); Metu Zuria (149 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 24 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.