Skip to content
worldfires
ET · Ethiopia · →

Gidami fire, December 2021 Gidami

Out · last detection 28 Dec 2021, 11:26 UTC

The fire started on 26 December 2021 in Gidami, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,839 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 125th largest in Oromia since 2016 (of 264 with a page). Number 141 in Ethiopia in 2021, of 255.

Burnt area
2,839ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
26 Dec 2021 – 28 Dec 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
26 Dec
2021
Heat detections
68
in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
782MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Dec 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Dec28 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

262728

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
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 686 ha in 2016, 1,195 ha in 2017, 781 ha in 2018, 76 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,173 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Gidami where it started
    2,779 ha reached on 26 Dec
    1.4 %

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)
26 Dec 33.6 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Dec 35.3 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Dec 35.0 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Dec after 35.9 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Dec after 37.2 °C 23 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Dec after 37.5 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Jan after 37.5 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Jan after 37.0 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Jan after 36.7 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Jan after 36.9 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Jan after 36.7 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Jan after 36.6 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
7 Jan after 37.7 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Dec 2021
After · 4 Jan 2022

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 · 68Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ethiopia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Gidami fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 December 2021 and 28 December 2021: 3 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 2,839 hectares (28.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Gidami (2,779 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.