How long did the Esira fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 December 2016 and 11 January 2017: 15 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 10,858 hectares (108.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tocha (7,459 ha, 9.5 %); Esira (3,184 ha, 3.0 %); Ela (Konta) SP Woreda (285 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.

ET · Ethiopia · 2016-12-28 → 2017-01-11

Esira fire, December 2016 Tocha, Esira, Ela (Konta) SP Woreda

Out · last detection 12 Jan 2017, 10:41 UTC

The fire started on 28 December 2016 in Esira, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,858 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 20 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

Burnt area: 10,858ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 15days; 28 Dec 2016 – 11 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit: 3; districts
Started on: 28 Dec; 2016
Heat detections: 424; in a single hotspot: 98 MW
Danger at start: 26; High · FWI index
Energy released: 4.7GW; sum of detected power

Play back 12 Jan 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Dec11 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

28293031123456789101112

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

35°high

32km/h · peak gust

11%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,255 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,046 ha that had burned before.

366 ha Ela (Konta) SP Woreda fire, February 2016 2,932 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Tocha

7,459 ha reached on 25 Dec

9.5 %
Esira where it started

3,184 ha reached on 24 Dec

3.0 %
Ela (Konta) SP Woreda

285 ha reached on 26 Dec

0.1 %

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)
24 Dec	33.3 °C	25 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
25 Dec	34.2 °C	29 %	23 km/h	0.2 mm	High 24
26 Dec	33.1 °C	26 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
27 Dec	32.7 °C	21 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
28 Dec	33.6 °C	22 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
29 Dec	34.0 °C	21 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
30 Dec	33.9 °C	23 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
31 Dec	33.3 °C	18 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
1 Jan	33.3 °C	14 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
2 Jan	34.2 °C	15 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
3 Jan	34.5 °C	20 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
4 Jan	34.0 °C	16 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
5 Jan	33.5 °C	12 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
6 Jan	33.3 °C	15 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
7 Jan	33.9 °C	17 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
8 Jan	33.9 °C	17 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
9 Jan	34.1 °C	15 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
10 Jan	33.7 °C	13 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
11 Jan	33.9 °C	14 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
12 Jan after	33.3 °C	11 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
13 Jan after	33.6 °C	21 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
14 Jan after	34.7 °C	20 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
15 Jan after	34.9 °C	18 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
16 Jan after	35.2 °C	13 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
17 Jan after	34.5 °C	17 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
18 Jan after	34.0 °C	13 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
19 Jan after	34.6 °C	24 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
20 Jan after	33.1 °C	26 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
21 Jan after	33.5 °C	29 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
22 Jan after	35.1 °C	26 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
23 Jan after	35.3 °C	22 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
24 Jan after	34.8 °C	23 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
25 Jan after	34.8 °C	17 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
26 Jan after	34.3 °C	25 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
27 Jan after	33.6 °C	31 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
28 Jan after	34.1 °C	29 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 21 Dec 2016

After · 18 Jan 2017

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 424Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ethiopia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Esira fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 December 2016 and 11 January 2017: 15 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 10,858 hectares (108.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tocha (7,459 ha, 9.5 %); Esira (3,184 ha, 3.0 %); Ela (Konta) SP Woreda (285 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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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.

Where it burned