Dibat fire, March 2025 Dibat, Guangua
The fire started on 10 March 2025 in Dibat, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,792 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 382th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 65 in Ethiopia in 2025, of 127.
- Burnt area
- 2,792ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 10 Mar 2025 – 11 Mar 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 10 Mar
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 87
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 883MW
- 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: 1,838 ha in 2016, 1,393 ha in 2017, 887 ha in 2018, 328 ha in 2019, 1,538 ha in 2020, 4 ha in 2021, 712 ha in 2022, 1,802 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,647 ha that had burned before.
- 1,802 ha Dibat fire, February 2024 3,600 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,538 ha Dibat fire, March 2020 4,902 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,393 ha Dibat fire, March 2017 4,986 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 812 ha Dibat fire, March 2016 6,018 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dibat where it started2,092 ha reached on 9 Mar0.9 %
-
719 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Mar | 34.9 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 11 Mar | 34.7 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Mar after | 33.6 °C | 18 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 Mar after | 32.7 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 41 |
| 14 Mar after | 33.9 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 15 Mar after | 35.1 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 16 Mar after | 35.2 °C | 15 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 17 Mar after | 35.0 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Mar after | 33.6 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 19 Mar after | 35.7 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 20 Mar after | 34.4 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 21 Mar after | 33.2 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 10 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 72 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 87Every 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 10 March 2025 and 11 March 2025: 2 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 2,792 hectares (27.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dibat (2,092 ha, 0.9 %); Guangua (719 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.
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.