Dima fire, 14 February 2023 Dima
The fire started on 14 February 2023 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,648 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 17th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). The largest in Ethiopia in 2023, of 101.
- Burnt area
- 18,648ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 14 Feb 2023 – 19 Feb 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 14 Feb
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 849
- in a single hotspot: 122 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 8.9GW
- 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 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,339 ha in 2016, 3,883 ha in 2017, 3,437 ha in 2018, 4,949 ha in 2019, 5,092 ha in 2020, 7,441 ha in 2021, 3,524 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 16,701 ha that had burned before.
- 3,579 ha Dima fire, January 2021 102,019 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,481 ha Dima fire, March 2020 5,500 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,708 ha Dima fire, February 2016 6,483 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,211 ha Dima fire, February 2022 3,471 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,148 ha Dima fire, January 2021 3,021 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,906 ha Dima fire, January 2018 3,123 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,650 ha Dima fire, January 2019 12,698 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,628 ha Dima fire, January 2017 3,413 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dima where it started18,781 ha reached on 13 Feb2.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Feb | 39.8 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 14 Feb | 40.0 °C | 14 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 15 Feb | 39.8 °C | 14 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 16 Feb | 38.5 °C | 16 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 17 Feb | 39.0 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 18 Feb | 38.4 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Feb | 38.4 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 20 Feb after | 39.8 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 21 Feb after | 40.1 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 22 Feb after | 40.5 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Feb after | 40.6 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 24 Feb after | 40.1 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Feb after | 37.8 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 26 Feb after | 41.1 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 27 Feb after | 39.9 °C | 21 % | 37 km/h | 0.4 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 28 Feb after | 38.9 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 1 Mar after | 36.7 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 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 · 849Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 15,631 haDima11 February 2023 · 5 days · 15 km away
- 26,386 haDima3 January 2019 · 7 days · 25 km away
- 17,819 haDima11 January 2018 · 9 days · 27 km away
- 20,169 haDima8 January 2019 · 15 days · 28 km away
- 17,615 haDima6 January 2019 · 13 days · 32 km away
- 15,296 haDima29 January 2016 · 10 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dima fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 February 2023 and 19 February 2023: 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 18,648 hectares (186.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dima (18,781 ha, 2.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.
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.