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Decha fire, 15 January 2019 Decha, Menit Goldiye

Out · last detection 20 Jan 2019, 11:43 UTC

The fire started on 15 January 2019 in Decha, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,439 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 52th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 78 in Ethiopia in 2019, of 220.

Burnt area
3,439ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
15 Jan 2019 – 20 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
15 Jan
2019
Heat detections
113
in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
917MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jan 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jan20 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920

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
27km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 59 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,862 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Decha where it started
    3,380 ha reached on 15 Jan
    1.2 %
  2. Menit Goldiye
    84 ha reached on 20 Jan
    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)
15 Jan 35.8 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Jan 35.2 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Jan 35.7 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Jan 35.4 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Jan 33.8 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Jan 34.2 °C 26 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Jan after 35.1 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Jan after 34.8 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Jan after 35.1 °C 23 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Jan after 34.5 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Jan after 35.5 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Jan after 35.8 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Jan after 35.7 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Jan after 36.5 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
29 Jan after 34.8 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Jan after 35.0 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jan 2019
After · 27 Jan 2019

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 · 113Every 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 15 January 2019 and 20 January 2019: 6 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 3,439 hectares (34.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Decha (3,380 ha, 1.2 %); Menit Goldiye (84 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.