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Decha fire, 22 January 2021 Decha, Menit Goldiye

Out · last detection 7 Feb 2021, 10:59 UTC

The fire started on 22 January 2021 in Decha, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,479 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 41 in Ethiopia in 2021, of 255.

Burnt area
6,479ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
22 Jan 2021 – 6 Feb 2021
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
22 Jan
2021
Heat detections
269
in a single hotspot: 99 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Feb 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jan6 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

222325262728293031123467

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
26km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,570 ha in 2016, 363 ha in 2017, 13 ha in 2018, 3,644 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,140 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Decha where it started
    5,195 ha reached on 15 Jan
    1.8 %
  2. Menit Goldiye
    1,330 ha reached on 22 Jan
    0.8 %

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)
22 Jan 30.7 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Jan 28.1 °C 39 % 20 km/h 0.4 mm High 22
24 Jan 29.5 °C 33 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
25 Jan 30.1 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
26 Jan 30.0 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Jan 31.0 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Jan 30.7 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
29 Jan 31.0 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
30 Jan 31.0 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
31 Jan 31.3 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
1 Feb 31.5 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Feb 31.1 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Feb 31.6 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Feb 30.7 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Feb 30.5 °C 30 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
6 Feb 30.7 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Feb after 29.7 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Feb after 31.0 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Feb after 30.2 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
10 Feb after 32.2 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Feb after 29.1 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
12 Feb after 30.7 °C 27 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Feb after 31.3 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Feb after 31.1 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Feb after 31.3 °C 30 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Feb after 30.6 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jan 2021
After · 13 Feb 2021

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 · 269Every 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 22 January 2021 and 6 February 2021: 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 6,479 hectares (64.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Decha (5,195 ha, 1.8 %); Menit Goldiye (1,330 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.