Dima fire, 20 January 2023 Dima
The fire started on 20 January 2023 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,579 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 223th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 30 in Ethiopia in 2023, of 101.
- Burnt area
- 3,579ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 20 Jan 2023 – 24 Jan 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 20 Jan
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 96
- in a single hotspot: 131 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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 42 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,381 ha in 2016, 1,962 ha in 2017, 136 ha in 2018, 1,140 ha in 2019, 985 ha in 2020, 8 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,272 ha that had burned before.
- 1,381 ha Dima fire, December 2016 3,570 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,140 ha Dima fire, January 2019 3,557 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 86 ha Dima fire, December 2017 3,570 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 53 ha Dima fire, February 2020 2,920 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 45 ha Dima fire, December 2020 2,344 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8 ha Dima fire, January 2021 11,339 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dima where it started3,605 ha reached on 20 Jan0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Jan | 36.8 °C | 25 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 21 Jan | 37.3 °C | 22 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 22 Jan | 36.4 °C | 18 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Jan | 38.5 °C | 17 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 24 Jan | 38.5 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 25 Jan after | 37.2 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 26 Jan after | 39.0 °C | 19 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Jan after | 38.2 °C | 18 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 28 Jan after | 38.9 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 29 Jan after | 38.3 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Jan after | 39.0 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 31 Jan after | 38.6 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 1 Feb after | 37.8 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 2 Feb after | 38.8 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 3 Feb after | 38.6 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
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 · 96Every 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 20 January 2023 and 24 January 2023: 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 3,579 hectares (35.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dima (3,605 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very 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.