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Dima fire, 10 January 2018 Dima, Gog

Out · last detection 14 Jan 2018, 10:59 UTC

The fire started on 10 January 2018 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,823 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 54th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 7 in Ethiopia in 2018, of 96.

Burnt area
9,823ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
10 Jan 2018 – 14 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
10 Jan
2018
Heat detections
278
in a single hotspot: 286 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jan14 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

1011121314

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
36km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,171 ha in 2016, 435 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,815 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dima where it started
    8,291 ha reached on 10 Jan
    1.1 %
  2. Gog
    1,606 ha reached on 10 Jan
    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)
10 Jan 38.7 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Jan 39.1 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Jan 38.4 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Jan 38.9 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Jan 39.0 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Jan after 38.9 °C 10 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Jan after 38.3 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Jan after 38.8 °C 12 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Jan after 38.6 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Jan after 38.8 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Jan after 38.8 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Jan after 37.4 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Jan after 37.7 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jan after 38.2 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Jan after 38.5 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Jan after 37.7 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Jan after 39.4 °C 18 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Jan after 38.6 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Jan after 38.5 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Jan after 38.9 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Jan after 37.8 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Jan after 38.8 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Jan 2018
After · 21 Jan 2018

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 · 278Every 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 10 January 2018 and 14 January 2018: 5 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 9,823 hectares (98.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dima (8,291 ha, 1.1 %); Gog (1,606 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.

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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.