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Dima fire, 21 December 2016 Dima

Out · last detection 24 Dec 2016, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 21 December 2016 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,570 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 225th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 108 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

Burnt area
3,570ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
21 Dec 2016 – 24 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
21 Dec
2016
Heat detections
80
in a single hotspot: 206 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Dec24 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

212224

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
29km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Dima where it started
    3,596 ha reached on 21 Dec
    0.5 %

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)
21 Dec 36.5 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Dec 36.5 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Dec 37.1 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Dec 38.3 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Dec after 37.6 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Dec after 36.0 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Dec after 36.4 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Dec after 37.0 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Dec after 38.9 °C 19 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Dec after 38.8 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Dec after 37.5 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Jan after 37.1 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Jan after 39.0 °C 17 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Jan after 38.7 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Dec 2016
After · 31 Dec 2016

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 · 80Every 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 Dima fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 December 2016 and 24 December 2016: 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 3,570 hectares (35.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dima (3,596 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.