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Gog fire, 8 December 2016 Gog, Abobo

Out · last detection 13 Dec 2016, 11:44 UTC

The fire started on 8 December 2016 in Gog, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,745 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 366th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 185 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

Burnt area
2,745ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
8 Dec 2016 – 13 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
8 Dec
2016
Heat detections
60
in a single hotspot: 37 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
597MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Dec13 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

8910111213

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
31km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Gog where it started
    1,927 ha reached on 8 Dec
    0.6 %
  2. Abobo
    838 ha reached on 13 Dec
    0.3 %

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)
8 Dec 38.1 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Dec 37.6 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Dec 37.1 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Dec 37.7 °C 24 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Dec 37.2 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Dec 37.0 °C 32 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Dec after 36.7 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Dec after 35.4 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
16 Dec after 36.0 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.7 mm High 26
17 Dec after 36.3 °C 30 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Dec after 36.2 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Dec after 35.7 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Dec after 37.0 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Dec after 36.9 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Dec after 36.6 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Dec after 37.1 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Dec 2016
After · 20 Dec 2016

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 · 60Every 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 Gog fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 December 2016 and 13 December 2016: 6 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 2,745 hectares (27.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gog (1,927 ha, 0.6 %); Abobo (838 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.