Skip to content
worldfires
ET · Ethiopia · →

Decha fire, 3 February 2016 Decha, Ela (Konta) SP Woreda, Selamgo

Out · last detection 11 Feb 2016, 10:42 UTC

The fire started on 3 February 2016 in Decha, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,201 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 63th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 130 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

Burnt area
3,201ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
3 Feb 2016 – 10 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
3 Feb
2016
Heat detections
97
in a single hotspot: 52 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
991MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Feb10 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

34567891011

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
32km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 45 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. Decha where it started
    3,045 ha reached on 3 Feb
    1.0 %
  2. Ela (Konta) SP Woreda
    141 ha reached on 10 Feb
    0.1 %
  3. Selamgo
    35 ha reached on 7 Feb
    0.0 %

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)
3 Feb 32.2 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
4 Feb 33.2 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
5 Feb 33.5 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Feb 32.9 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Feb 33.1 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Feb 34.8 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Feb 34.3 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Feb 33.5 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Feb after 32.7 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Feb after 32.3 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Feb after 34.3 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Feb after 33.3 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Feb after 34.8 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Feb after 32.4 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Feb after 33.5 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Feb after 33.7 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Feb after 34.8 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Feb after 34.8 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Jan 2016
After · 17 Feb 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 · 97Every 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 Decha fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 February 2016 and 10 February 2016: 8 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 3,201 hectares (32.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Decha (3,045 ha, 1.0 %); Ela (Konta) SP Woreda (141 ha, 0.1 %); Selamgo (35 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.