Dima fire, 25 December 2018 Dima
The fire started on 25 December 2018 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,902 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 62th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 8 in Ethiopia in 2018, of 96.
- Burnt area
- 8,902ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 25 Dec 2018 – 28 Dec 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 25 Dec
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 214
- in a single hotspot: 127 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.8GW
- 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 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,163 ha in 2016, 4,194 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,786 ha that had burned before.
- 2,249 ha Dima fire, December 2017 3,957 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,682 ha Dima fire, January 2016 2,779 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,158 ha Dima fire, December 2017 2,463 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 787 ha Dima fire, March 2017 2,124 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 66 ha Dima fire, January 2016 15,296 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 39 ha Dima fire, January 2016 3,023 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dima where it started8,962 ha reached on 25 Dec1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Dec | 37.4 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 26 Dec | 37.8 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 27 Dec | 37.4 °C | 21 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Dec | 37.7 °C | 25 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 29 Dec after | 37.3 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Dec after | 35.7 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 38 |
| 31 Dec after | 34.2 °C | 37 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Jan after | 35.3 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Jan after | 35.5 °C | 32 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 3 Jan after | 36.2 °C | 26 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 4 Jan after | 37.6 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Jan after | 37.0 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Jan after | 38.2 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
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 · 214Every 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 25 December 2018 and 28 December 2018: 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 8,902 hectares (89.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dima (8,962 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.
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.