Dima fire, 23 January 2026 Dima
The fire started on 23 January 2026 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,707 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 378th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 108 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 2,707ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 23 Jan 2026 – 26 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 23 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 41
- in a single hotspot: 61 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 426MW
- 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 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 1 Feb.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,323 ha in 2016, 217 ha in 2017, 1,629 ha in 2018, 152 ha in 2019, 123 ha in 2020, 2,281 ha in 2021, 1,031 ha in 2022, 1,943 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,616 ha that had burned before.
- 2,281 ha Dima fire, January 2021 102,019 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,943 ha Dima fire, February 2023 2,731 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,572 ha Dima fire, January 2016 2,483 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 803 ha Dima fire, December 2018 3,795 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 217 ha Dima fire, December 2016 11,210 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 152 ha Dima fire, February 2019 2,131 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dima where it started2,724 ha reached on 23 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jan | 38.1 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Jan | 39.6 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Jan | 40.2 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 26 Jan | 40.2 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 28 Jan after | 38.7 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 29 Jan after | 38.1 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 30 Jan after | 39.2 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Jan after | 38.2 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 1 Feb after | 32.8 °C | 31 % | 23 km/h | 1.2 mm | High 28 |
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 27 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 68 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 39: 2.6 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 · 41Every 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 23 January 2026 and 26 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 2,707 hectares (27.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dima (2,724 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 37 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.