Dima fire, 16 February 2025 Dima
The fire started on 16 February 2025 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,236 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 78th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 13 in Ethiopia in 2025, of 127.
- Burnt area
- 7,236ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 16 Feb 2025 – 18 Feb 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Feb
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 234
- in a single hotspot: 78 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.6GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,052 ha in 2016, 2,461 ha in 2017, 2,157 ha in 2018, 680 ha in 2020, 2,146 ha in 2021, 4,908 ha in 2022, 262 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,948 ha that had burned before.
- 4,908 ha Pibor fire, January 2022 32,332 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,461 ha Dima fire, December 2017 5,317 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,386 ha Dima fire, January 2018 2,635 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,357 ha Dima fire, February 2021 7,883 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,066 ha Dima fire, February 2016 2,881 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 421 ha Dima fire, January 2021 10,202 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 348 ha Dima fire, January 2021 102,019 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 262 ha Dima fire, February 2023 4,631 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dima where it started7,282 ha reached on 16 Feb0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Feb | 37.9 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Feb | 39.7 °C | 18 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 18 Feb | 38.1 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 45 |
| 19 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 20 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 16 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 21 Feb after | 38.4 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 23 Feb after | 39.4 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 24 Feb after | 39.5 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 25 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 26 Feb after | 39.1 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 27 Feb after | 39.5 °C | 13 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 28 Feb after | 39.8 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
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 19 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 111 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 68: 4.5 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 · 234Every 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 16 February 2025 and 18 February 2025: 3 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 7,236 hectares (72.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dima (7,282 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.