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Dibat fire, 3 March 2017 Dibat, Guangua

Out · last detection 9 Mar 2017, 11:31 UTC

The fire started on 3 March 2017 in Dibat, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,986 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 125th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 60 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
4,986ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
3 Mar 2017 – 8 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
3 Mar
2017
Heat detections
164
in a single hotspot: 65 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Mar8 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

3456789

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
34km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

68% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,410 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Dibat where it started
    3,019 ha reached on 3 Mar
    1.3 %
  2. Guangua
    2,000 ha reached on 3 Mar
    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)
3 Mar 34.7 °C 5 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Mar 32.9 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Mar 33.7 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Mar 33.6 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 45
7 Mar 32.3 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Mar 33.6 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Mar after 32.8 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Mar after 34.3 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Mar after 34.6 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Mar after 35.0 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Mar after 34.6 °C 16 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Mar after 35.8 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Mar after 33.9 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.8 mm High 37
16 Mar after 35.1 °C 16 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Mar after 33.3 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Mar after 33.2 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Feb 2017
After · 15 Mar 2017

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 · 164Every 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 Dibat fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 March 2017 and 8 March 2017: 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 4,986 hectares (49.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dibat (3,019 ha, 1.3 %); Guangua (2,000 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
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.