How long did the Decha fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 December 2016 and 14 January 2017: 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 19,581 hectares (195.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Decha (10,487 ha, 3.6 %); Cheta (9,222 ha, 14 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.

ET · Ethiopia · 2016-12-30 → 2017-01-14

Decha fire, 30 December 2016 Decha, Cheta

Out · last detection 15 Jan 2017, 22:21 UTC

The fire started on 30 December 2016 in Decha, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,581 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 7 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

Burnt area: 19,581ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 16days; 30 Dec 2016 – 14 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 30 Dec; 2016
Heat detections: 743; in a single hotspot: 89 MW
Danger at start: 23; High · FWI index
Energy released: 5.8GW; sum of detected power

Play back 15 Jan 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Dec14 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

3031123456789101112131415

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

28km/h · peak gust

5%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 560 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

Decha where it started

10,487 ha reached on 25 Dec

3.6 %
Cheta

9,222 ha reached on 27 Dec

14 %

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)
25 Dec	34.9 °C	28 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
26 Dec	33.7 °C	27 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
27 Dec	33.7 °C	20 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
28 Dec	34.3 °C	21 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
29 Dec	35.0 °C	19 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
30 Dec	34.7 °C	22 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
31 Dec	34.6 °C	16 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
1 Jan	34.7 °C	9 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
2 Jan	35.0 °C	11 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
3 Jan	35.0 °C	15 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
4 Jan	35.0 °C	10 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
5 Jan	34.4 °C	9 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
6 Jan	34.4 °C	7 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
7 Jan	34.7 °C	10 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
8 Jan	34.8 °C	14 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
9 Jan	34.8 °C	15 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
10 Jan	34.7 °C	5 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
11 Jan	34.8 °C	12 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
12 Jan	34.2 °C	9 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
13 Jan	34.4 °C	16 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
14 Jan	35.3 °C	13 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
15 Jan after	35.7 °C	13 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
16 Jan after	35.9 °C	15 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
17 Jan after	35.1 °C	17 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
18 Jan after	35.1 °C	16 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
19 Jan after	35.2 °C	20 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
20 Jan after	34.1 °C	21 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
21 Jan after	35.0 °C	21 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
22 Jan after	35.8 °C	22 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
23 Jan after	35.8 °C	22 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
24 Jan after	35.5 °C	24 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
25 Jan after	35.6 °C	19 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
26 Jan after	35.2 °C	23 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
27 Jan after	35.1 °C	26 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
28 Jan after	36.4 °C	21 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
29 Jan after	34.4 °C	27 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
30 Jan after	34.2 °C	33 %	22 km/h	0.3 mm	High 30
31 Jan after	32.9 °C	37 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 23 Dec 2016

After · 21 Jan 2017

Before After

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 · 743Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ethiopia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Decha fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 December 2016 and 14 January 2017: 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 19,581 hectares (195.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Decha (10,487 ha, 3.6 %); Cheta (9,222 ha, 14 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned