Dibat fire, 23 January 2020 Dibat, Yaso
The fire started on 23 January 2020 in Dibat, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,791 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 61th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 18 in Ethiopia in 2020, of 177.
The power measured by the satellite is low (22.7 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
- 7,791ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 23 Jan 2020 – 6 Feb 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 23 Jan
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 287
- in a single hotspot: 23 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 823MW
- 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 41 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 14 Feb.
This area had burned before
74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 22 ha in 2016, 2,968 ha in 2017, 2,501 ha in 2018, 3,057 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,731 ha that had burned before.
- 1,872 ha Dibat fire, January 2019 3,299 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,481 ha Dibat fire, January 2018 3,615 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,186 ha Dibat fire, January 2019 2,248 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,137 ha Dibat fire, January 2017 2,166 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 832 ha Dibat fire, January 2017 2,991 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16 ha Yaso fire, December 2016 2,397 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6 ha Dibat fire, February 2016 8,143 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dibat where it started7,806 ha reached on 22 Jan3.5 %
-
31 ha reached on 22 Jan0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jan | 31.4 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 24 Jan | 32.3 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Jan | 33.5 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Jan | 33.4 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 27 Jan | 33.7 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Jan | 34.2 °C | 23 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 29 Jan | 33.4 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 30 Jan | 34.4 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 31 Jan | 33.4 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Feb | 33.5 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 2 Feb | 34.6 °C | 25 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 3 Feb | 34.8 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 4 Feb | 33.1 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 5 Feb | 34.2 °C | 20 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Feb | 35.0 °C | 20 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 7 Feb after | 34.5 °C | 22 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 8 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 9 Feb after | 37.6 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 10 Feb after | 34.6 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 11 Feb after | 34.7 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Feb after | 33.4 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 13 Feb after | 34.8 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 14 Feb after | 33.8 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 2.8 mm | Moderate 13 |
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 · 287Every 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 23 January 2020 and 6 February 2020: 15 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 7,791 hectares (77.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dibat (7,806 ha, 3.5 %); Yaso (31 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 32 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.
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.