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Dima fire, 14 January 2017 Dima, Gurafereda

Out · last detection 20 Jan 2017, 11:31 UTC

The fire started on 14 January 2017 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,100 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 87th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 33 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
7,100ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
14 Jan 2017 – 19 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Jan
2017
Heat detections
167
in a single hotspot: 34 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
851MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jan19 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920

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
36km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,156 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Dima where it started
    7,097 ha reached on 13 Jan
    0.9 %
  2. Gurafereda
    52 ha reached on 16 Jan
    0.0 %

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)
14 Jan 36.8 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Jan 37.1 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Jan 37.7 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Jan 36.8 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Jan 36.5 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Jan 37.1 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Jan after 36.2 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Jan after 36.9 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Jan after 37.9 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Jan after 37.8 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Jan after 37.0 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Jan after 36.7 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Jan after 36.5 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jan after 37.6 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Jan after 37.0 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Jan after 36.0 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.8 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jan 2017
After · 26 Jan 2017

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 · 167Every 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 14 January 2017 and 19 January 2017: 6 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 7,100 hectares (71.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dima (7,097 ha, 0.9 %); Gurafereda (52 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 36 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.