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Dibat fire, January 2018 Dibat, Guangua, Yaso

Out · last detection 1 Feb 2018, 22:57 UTC

The fire started on 25 January 2018 in Dibat, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,615 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 221th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 26 in Ethiopia in 2018, of 96.

Burnt area
3,615ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
25 Jan 2018 – 31 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
25 Jan
2018
Heat detections
194
in a single hotspot: 52 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
642MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Feb 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jan31 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

252627282930311

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
28km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 92 ha in 2016, 667 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Dibat where it started
    3,517 ha reached on 25 Jan
    1.6 %
  2. Guangua
    88 ha reached on 30 Jan
    0.0 %
  3. Yaso
    32 ha
    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)
25 Jan 33.6 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Jan 35.1 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Jan 34.7 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Jan 34.5 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Jan 35.2 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Jan 34.4 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Jan 35.2 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Feb after 34.5 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Feb after 36.2 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Feb after 36.0 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
4 Feb after 33.5 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Feb after 34.3 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Feb after 34.4 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Feb after 36.7 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Feb after 37.4 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Feb after 37.5 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Feb after 36.2 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jan 2018
After · 7 Feb 2018

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 · 194Every 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 25 January 2018 and 31 January 2018: 7 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 3,615 hectares (36.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Dibat (3,517 ha, 1.6 %); Guangua (88 ha, 0.0 %); Yaso (32 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.