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Debre Elias fire, 18 November 2016 Jarte Jardega, Amuru, Debre Elias

Out · last detection 22 Nov 2016, 09:58 UTC

The fire started on 18 November 2016 in Debre Elias, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,766 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 96th largest in Amhara since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 179 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

Burnt area
2,766ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
18 Nov 2016 – 22 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
18 Nov
2016
Heat detections
95
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
564MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Nov22 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
29km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days 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. Jarte Jardega
    1,191 ha reached on 15 Nov
    1.0 %
  2. Amuru
    950 ha reached on 14 Nov
    0.8 %
  3. Debre Elias where it started
    642 ha reached on 14 Nov
    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)
18 Nov 35.2 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Nov 35.4 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Nov 35.3 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Nov 35.8 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Nov 36.3 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Nov after 35.5 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Nov after 34.0 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Nov after 34.6 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Nov after 34.0 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Nov after 34.3 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Nov after 35.1 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Nov after 35.1 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Nov after 35.4 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Dec after 35.8 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Dec after 33.1 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Nov 2016
After · 29 Nov 2016

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 · 95Every 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 Debre Elias fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 November 2016 and 22 November 2016: 5 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 2,766 hectares (27.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Jarte Jardega (1,191 ha, 1.0 %); Amuru (950 ha, 0.8 %); Debre Elias (642 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.