Dima fire, 8 January 2026 Dima
The fire started on 8 January 2026 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,469 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 239th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 62 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 3,469ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 8 Jan 2026 – 15 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 72
- in a single hotspot: 153 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 865MW
- 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
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,420 ha in 2016, 1,423 ha in 2017, 2,867 ha in 2019, 391 ha in 2020, 1,951 ha in 2021, 51 ha in 2022, 408 ha in 2023, 1,131 ha in 2024, 44 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,488 ha that had burned before.
- 1,959 ha Dima fire, January 2019 12,698 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,951 ha Dima fire, January 2021 102,019 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,497 ha Dima fire, February 2016 6,483 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,131 ha Dima fire, January 2024 2,240 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 556 ha Dima fire, January 2016 6,088 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 530 ha Dima fire, January 2016 4,407 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 262 ha Dima fire, February 2023 18,648 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 242 ha Dima fire, January 2017 2,570 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dima where it started3,493 ha reached on 8 Jan0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Jan | 38.5 °C | 17 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Jan | 37.5 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 10 Jan | 36.9 °C | 17 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 11 Jan | 37.7 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 12 Jan | 37.2 °C | 21 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 13 Jan | 37.8 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 14 Jan | 36.0 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 15 Jan | 36.8 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Jan after | 35.8 °C | 20 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Jan after | 37.1 °C | 18 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 18 Jan after | 37.9 °C | 25 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Jan after | 37.4 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Jan after | 38.3 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Jan after | 39.5 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Jan after | 39.2 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Jan after | 38.6 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 24 Jan after | 40.0 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 25 Jan after | 40.6 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
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 16 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 85 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 53: 3.5 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 · 72Every 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 8 January 2026 and 15 January 2026: 8 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 3,469 hectares (34.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dima (3,493 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.