Dibat fire, 31 January 2019 Dibat
The fire started on 31 January 2019 in Dibat, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,334 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 268th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 88 in Ethiopia in 2019, of 220.
The power measured by the satellite is low (28.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,334ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 31 Jan 2019 – 7 Feb 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 31 Jan
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 96
- in a single hotspot: 28 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 393MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,450 ha in 2016, 1,901 ha in 2017, 903 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,770 ha that had burned before.
- 1,869 ha Dibat fire, January 2017 3,491 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,062 ha Dibat fire, February 2016 5,163 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 32 ha Dibat fire, February 2017 2,852 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dibat where it started3,354 ha reached on 29 Jan1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Jan | 34.5 °C | 14 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 1 Feb | 35.8 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 2 Feb | 35.3 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 Feb | 35.7 °C | 11 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 4 Feb | 35.7 °C | 13 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Feb | 36.0 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Feb | 36.3 °C | 14 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Feb | 36.4 °C | 14 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 8 Feb after | 37.5 °C | 17 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Feb after | 35.6 °C | 15 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Feb after | 36.7 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 11 Feb after | 35.1 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 12 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 13 Feb after | 35.6 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 14 Feb after | 34.8 °C | 17 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 15 Feb after | 34.0 °C | 16 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 16 Feb after | 35.2 °C | 18 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Feb after | 35.2 °C | 23 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 96Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dibat fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 January 2019 and 7 February 2019: 8 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 3,334 hectares (33.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dibat (3,354 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.
Report an error
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.