Dima fire, 17 January 2026 Dima
The fire started on 17 January 2026 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,060 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 297th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 79 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 3,060ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 17 Jan 2026 – 20 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 64
- in a single hotspot: 93 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 719MW
- 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
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 201 ha in 2016, 144 ha in 2017, 536 ha in 2018, 695 ha in 2019, 2,089 ha in 2020, 7 ha in 2022, 415 ha in 2023, 795 ha in 2024, 1,807 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,020 ha that had burned before.
- 2,089 ha Dima fire, February 2020 14,976 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,807 ha Dima fire, January 2025 12,080 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 568 ha Dima fire, January 2019 4,867 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 445 ha Dima fire, January 2018 2,515 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 413 ha Dima fire, February 2023 4,159 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 127 ha Dima fire, January 2019 26,386 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 116 ha Dima fire, January 2016 12,079 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 26 ha Dima fire, January 2018 17,819 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dima where it started3,083 ha reached on 16 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Jan | 36.6 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 18 Jan | 38.3 °C | 24 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 19 Jan | 37.5 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Jan | 38.5 °C | 26 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Jan after | 39.2 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Jan after | 39.0 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Jan after | 38.4 °C | 18 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 24 Jan after | 40.0 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Jan after | 40.8 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 26 Jan after | 40.8 °C | 13 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 27 Jan after | 38.8 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 28 Jan after | 39.0 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Jan after | 38.7 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Jan after | 39.8 °C | 19 % | 29 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.
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 · 64Every 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 17 January 2026 and 20 January 2026: 4 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 3,060 hectares (30.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dima (3,083 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.