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Decha fire, 30 January 2019 Decha, Cheta

Out · last detection 5 Feb 2019, 22:40 UTC

The fire started on 30 January 2019 in Decha, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,132 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 67th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 100 in Ethiopia in 2019, of 220.

Burnt area
3,132ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
30 Jan 2019 – 4 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
30 Jan
2019
Heat detections
83
in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
573MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Feb 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jan4 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

303112345

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
26km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 451 ha in 2016, 1,257 ha in 2017, 67 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,534 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Decha where it started
    2,928 ha reached on 30 Jan
    1.0 %
  2. Cheta
    226 ha reached on 1 Feb
    0.3 %

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)
30 Jan 34.4 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Jan 35.2 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Feb 35.7 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Feb 34.4 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Feb 35.2 °C 21 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Feb 36.5 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Feb after 36.3 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Feb after 35.1 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Feb after 36.0 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Feb after 36.6 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Feb after 34.1 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Feb after 35.4 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Feb after 34.3 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Feb after 36.0 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Feb after 35.0 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Feb after 32.4 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jan 2019
After · 11 Feb 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 · 83Every 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 30 January 2019 and 4 February 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 3,132 hectares (31.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Decha (2,928 ha, 1.0 %); Cheta (226 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 26 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.