Dima fire, 31 December 2016 Dima, Gog
The fire started on 31 December 2016 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 48,364 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 6th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 3 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.
- Burnt area
- 48,364ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 23days
- 31 Dec 2016 – 22 Jan 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 31 Dec
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 1,741
- in a single hotspot: 163 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 20.7GW
- 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 34 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,269 ha in 2016.
- 2,916 ha Dima fire, January 2016 4,702 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,888 ha Dima fire, February 2016 2,234 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,756 ha Dima fire, January 2016 4,810 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,239 ha Dima fire, February 2016 2,067 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 194 ha Dima fire, January 2016 15,296 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dima where it started46,857 ha reached on 28 Dec6.0 %
-
1,865 ha reached on 30 Dec0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Dec | 36.7 °C | 24 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Dec | 38.2 °C | 19 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Dec | 38.2 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 31 Dec | 37.2 °C | 22 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 1 Jan | 36.8 °C | 21 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Jan | 38.2 °C | 16 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 Jan | 38.1 °C | 18 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Jan | 38.0 °C | 16 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 5 Jan | 37.3 °C | 14 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Jan | 38.0 °C | 13 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Jan | 38.1 °C | 14 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Jan | 38.9 °C | 11 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Jan | 39.0 °C | 12 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Jan | 38.3 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 11 Jan | 38.7 °C | 13 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 12 Jan | 38.3 °C | 11 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 13 Jan | 39.3 °C | 12 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Jan | 39.7 °C | 8 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 15 Jan | 40.0 °C | 11 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 16 Jan | 40.6 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 17 Jan | 39.5 °C | 13 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 18 Jan | 38.9 °C | 9 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 19 Jan | 39.4 °C | 11 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 20 Jan | 38.8 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 21 Jan | 39.9 °C | 11 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Jan | 40.5 °C | 15 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 23 Jan after | 40.3 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 24 Jan after | 39.5 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 25 Jan after | 39.1 °C | 13 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 26 Jan after | 39.2 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Jan after | 40.3 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 28 Jan after | 39.8 °C | 14 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Jan after | 38.8 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 30 Jan after | 38.3 °C | 25 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 31 Jan after | 38.7 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Feb after | 39.1 °C | 23 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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 · 1,741Every 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 Dima fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 December 2016 and 22 January 2017: 23 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 48,364 hectares (483.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dima (46,857 ha, 6.0 %); Gog (1,865 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.