Dima fire, 6 February 2026 Dima
The fire started on 6 February 2026 in Dima, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,814 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 349th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 98 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.
The power measured by the satellite is low (15.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 2,814ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 6 Feb 2026 – 9 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 34
- in a single hotspot: 15 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 206MW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,891 ha in 2016, 752 ha in 2017, 846 ha in 2018, 354 ha in 2019, 1,222 ha in 2020, 2,126 ha in 2021, 341 ha in 2022, 719 ha in 2023, 11 ha in 2024, 1,160 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,833 ha that had burned before.
- 1,807 ha Dima fire, January 2016 12,079 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,664 ha Dima fire, January 2021 11,339 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,222 ha Dima fire, February 2020 14,976 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 846 ha Dima fire, January 2018 2,515 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 794 ha Dima fire, February 2025 5,172 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 719 ha Dima fire, January 2023 2,552 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 366 ha Dima fire, January 2025 12,080 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 354 ha Dima fire, January 2019 3,557 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dima where it started2,835 ha reached on 6 Feb0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Feb | 39.7 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 7 Feb | 38.2 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 8 Feb | 37.8 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Feb | 37.0 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 37 |
| 10 Feb after | 36.8 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 11 Feb after | 37.7 °C | 22 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Feb after | 37.3 °C | 20 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Feb after | 39.7 °C | 16 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.8 mm | Very high 40 |
| 16 Feb after | 37.7 °C | 27 % | 21 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 33 |
| 17 Feb after | 39.6 °C | 24 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Feb after | 38.4 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Feb after | 35.5 °C | 32 % | 19 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 33 |
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 11 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 63 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 41: 2.8 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 · 34Every 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 6 February 2026 and 9 February 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 2,814 hectares (28.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dima (2,835 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.