Skip to content
worldfires
ET · Ethiopia · →

Dima fire, 12 February 2022 Dima

Out · last detection 18 Feb 2022, 22:46 UTC

The fire started on 12 February 2022 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,406 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 248th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 41 in Ethiopia in 2022, of 135.

Burnt area
3,406ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
12 Feb 2022 – 18 Feb 2022
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Feb
2022
Heat detections
90
in a single hotspot: 35 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
848MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Feb 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Feb18 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
37km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 26 Feb.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,275 ha in 2016, 1,704 ha in 2017, 1,199 ha in 2018, 816 ha in 2019, 1,293 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,362 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dima where it started
    3,429 ha reached on 11 Feb
    0.4 %

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)
12 Feb 34.9 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Feb 35.0 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Feb 36.5 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
15 Feb 36.5 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
16 Feb 36.6 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Feb 37.1 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Feb 37.3 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Feb after 37.3 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Feb after 36.2 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Feb after 34.7 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
22 Feb after 35.6 °C 18 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Feb after 36.8 °C 18 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Feb after 36.9 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Feb after 35.5 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.5 mm High 37
26 Feb after 36.3 °C 28 % 32 km/h 1.6 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Feb 2022
After · 25 Feb 2022

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 · 90Every 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 12 February 2022 and 18 February 2022: 7 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 3,406 hectares (34.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dima (3,429 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 37 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.