How long did the Esira fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 January 2019 and 19 January 2019: 18 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 9,463 hectares (94.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Esira (7,991 ha, 7.5 %); Melekoza (1,533 ha, 0.9 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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 · 2019-01-02 → 2019-01-19

Esira fire, 2 January 2019 Esira, Melekoza

Out · last detection 20 Jan 2019, 22:40 UTC

The fire started on 2 January 2019 in Esira, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,463 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 21 in Ethiopia in 2019, of 220.

Burnt area: 9,463ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 18days; 2 Jan 2019 – 19 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 2 Jan; 2019
Heat detections: 406; in a single hotspot: 194 MW
Danger at start: 22; High · FWI index
Energy released: 2.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 20 Jan 2019

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Jan19 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

234567891011121314151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

35km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,901 ha in 2016, 2,003 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,600 ha that had burned before.

1,204 ha Esira fire, January 2017 2,464 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Esira where it started

7,991 ha reached on 26 Dec

7.5 %
Melekoza

1,533 ha reached on 26 Dec

0.9 %

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)
26 Dec	35.3 °C	29 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
27 Dec	35.8 °C	30 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
28 Dec	35.3 °C	35 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
29 Dec	35.7 °C	32 %	20 km/h	0.2 mm	High 21
30 Dec	35.7 °C	33 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
31 Dec	35.1 °C	33 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
1 Jan	35.2 °C	32 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
2 Jan	35.1 °C	34 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
3 Jan	35.6 °C	28 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
4 Jan	36.8 °C	24 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
5 Jan	36.2 °C	18 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
6 Jan	36.1 °C	16 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
7 Jan	35.5 °C	25 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
8 Jan	36.7 °C	18 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
9 Jan	36.5 °C	15 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
10 Jan	37.0 °C	15 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
11 Jan	36.6 °C	13 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
12 Jan	36.6 °C	12 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
13 Jan	36.6 °C	13 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
14 Jan	37.0 °C	15 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
15 Jan	37.1 °C	24 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
16 Jan	37.1 °C	24 %	24 km/h	0.1 mm	High 34
17 Jan	37.2 °C	23 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
18 Jan	36.9 °C	24 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
19 Jan	35.1 °C	31 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
20 Jan after	36.0 °C	29 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
21 Jan after	36.5 °C	27 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
22 Jan after	36.5 °C	28 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
23 Jan after	36.8 °C	26 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
24 Jan after	36.1 °C	28 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
25 Jan after	38.0 °C	19 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
26 Jan after	37.7 °C	22 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
27 Jan after	37.8 °C	24 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
28 Jan after	38.4 °C	25 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
29 Jan after	37.3 °C	27 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
30 Jan after	37.3 °C	19 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
31 Jan after	37.7 °C	15 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Feb after	38.0 °C	15 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
2 Feb after	37.4 °C	18 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 26 Dec 2018

After · 26 Jan 2019

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 · 406Every 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 2 January 2019 and 19 January 2019: 18 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 9,463 hectares (94.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Esira (7,991 ha, 7.5 %); Melekoza (1,533 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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