Dibat fire, 8 March 2019 Dibat, Guangua
The fire started on 8 March 2019 in Dibat, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,965 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 126th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 43 in Ethiopia in 2019, of 220.
- Burnt area
- 4,965ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 8 Mar 2019 – 11 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Mar
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 175
- in a single hotspot: 62 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.8GW
- 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
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,618 ha in 2016, 3,513 ha in 2017, 2,067 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,733 ha that had burned before.
- 3,435 ha Dibat fire, March 2016 6,018 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,243 ha Guangua fire, February 2017 3,159 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 419 ha Dibat fire, March 2017 4,986 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dibat where it started4,192 ha reached on 8 Mar1.9 %
-
806 ha reached on 9 Mar0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Mar | 33.1 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Mar | 32.6 °C | 17 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Mar | 32.4 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 11 Mar | 34.5 °C | 14 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Mar after | 35.5 °C | 13 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Mar after | 33.5 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 14 Mar after | 34.7 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 15 Mar after | 35.0 °C | 11 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Mar after | 34.5 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Mar after | 34.1 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 43 |
| 18 Mar after | 34.8 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 37 |
| 19 Mar after | 33.5 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 20 Mar after | 34.9 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 38 |
| 21 Mar after | 34.5 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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 · 175Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 39,575 haDangura24 February 2025 · 15 days · 23 km away
- 33,850 haMandura23 February 2017 · 7 days · 30 km away
- 42,975 haManduraMarch 2021 · 9 days · 33 km away
- 55,315 haDanguraMarch 2018 · 6 days · 35 km away
- 55,089 haMandura25 February 2024 · 15 days · 38 km away
- 39,054 haDangura21 February 2017 · 10 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dibat fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 March 2019 and 11 March 2019: 4 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 4,965 hectares (49.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dibat (4,192 ha, 1.9 %); Guangua (806 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °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.