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Gidami fire, 1 January 2026 Gidami, Itang

Out · last detection 11 Jan 2026, 10:34 UTC

The fire started on 1 January 2026 in Gidami, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,745 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 40th largest in Oromia since 2016 (of 264 with a page). Number 33 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.

Burnt area
4,745ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
1 Jan 2026 – 11 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
1 Jan
2026
Heat detections
118
in a single hotspot: 161 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
752MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Jan 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Jan11 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

34567891011

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
27km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

75% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 496 ha in 2016, 966 ha in 2017, 1,106 ha in 2018, 685 ha in 2020, 2,629 ha in 2021, 1,063 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,581 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Gidami where it started
    3,333 ha reached on 25 Dec
    1.7 %
  2. Itang
    19 ha reached on 25 Dec
    0.0 %

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)
1 Jan 34.9 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Jan 34.7 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Jan 36.9 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Jan 36.1 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Jan 36.9 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Jan 37.6 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Jan 36.3 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Jan 37.9 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Jan 37.8 °C 18 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Jan 37.1 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jan 37.0 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Jan after 37.2 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Jan after 36.8 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Jan after 36.7 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Jan after 36.2 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jan after 34.8 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Jan after 35.7 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Jan after 37.5 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Jan after 37.1 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Jan after 38.4 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Jan after 38.2 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Dec 2025
After · 18 Jan 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 5 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 80 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 48: 3.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak80 µg/m³
Days over the guideline16 days
PM1084 µg/m³
Optical depth0.79
30311234567891011121314
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 118Every 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 1 January 2026 and 11 January 2026: 11 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 4,745 hectares (47.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gidami (3,333 ha, 1.7 %); Itang (19 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 27 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.

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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.