Dima fire, 21 January 2025 Dima
The fire started on 21 January 2025 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,680 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 213th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 36 in Ethiopia in 2025, of 127.
- Burnt area
- 3,680ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 21 Jan 2025 – 25 Jan 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 21 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 126
- in a single hotspot: 220 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.0GW
- 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 58 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 513 ha in 2016, 2,222 ha in 2017, 1,436 ha in 2018, 267 ha in 2019, 60 ha in 2020, 1,122 ha in 2021, 670 ha in 2022, 1,127 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,396 ha that had burned before.
- 1,306 ha Dima fire, December 2017 5,996 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,125 ha Dima fire, December 2018 3,227 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 945 ha Dima fire, January 2021 2,737 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 645 ha Dima fire, January 2017 2,727 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 292 ha Dima fire, January 2016 2,038 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 270 ha Dima fire, January 2017 4,884 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 200 ha Dima fire, January 2019 3,071 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 67 ha Dima fire, January 2019 2,606 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dima where it started3,708 ha reached on 21 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jan | 39.5 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Jan | 38.3 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Jan | 38.2 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 24 Jan | 36.2 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Jan | 38.1 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Jan after | 37.9 °C | 20 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Jan after | 38.3 °C | 14 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 28 Jan after | 38.5 °C | 13 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Jan after | 37.1 °C | 15 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Jan after | 36.8 °C | 19 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 31 Jan after | 36.3 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Feb after | 38.3 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 2 Feb after | 36.9 °C | 22 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Feb after | 39.7 °C | 19 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 4 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 24 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 103 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 78: 5.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 126Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 20,169 haDima8 January 2019 · 15 days · 14 km away
- 26,386 haDima3 January 2019 · 7 days · 15 km away
- 18,648 haDima14 February 2023 · 6 days · 22 km away
- 17,819 haDima11 January 2018 · 9 days · 22 km away
- 17,615 haDima6 January 2019 · 13 days · 26 km away
- 15,631 haDima11 February 2023 · 5 days · 27 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dima fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 January 2025 and 25 January 2025: 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 3,680 hectares (36.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dima (3,708 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.