Gog fire, 15 January 2025 Gog
The fire started on 15 January 2025 in Gog, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,264 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 265th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 49 in Ethiopia in 2025, of 127.
The power measured by the satellite is low (26.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,264ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 15 Jan 2025 – 16 Jan 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 15 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 69
- in a single hotspot: 27 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 325MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,363 ha in 2016, 1,270 ha in 2017, 1,208 ha in 2018, 303 ha in 2019, 963 ha in 2020, 2,177 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,104 ha that had burned before.
- 2,095 ha Gog fire, January 2021 2,695 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,155 ha Gog fire, December 2017 3,236 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 963 ha Gog fire, February 2020 7,994 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 190 ha Dima fire, December 2016 7,056 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 121 ha Dima fire, January 2016 4,062 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 113 ha Dima fire, January 2019 26,386 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 82 ha Dima fire, January 2021 7,225 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 66 ha Dima fire, January 2018 17,819 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Gog where it started3,284 ha reached on 11 Jan1.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Jan | 38.0 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 16 Jan | 38.9 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 17 Jan after | 38.9 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 18 Jan after | 39.5 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 19 Jan after | 39.8 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Jan after | 40.4 °C | 15 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 21 Jan after | 40.0 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 22 Jan after | 39.3 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 23 Jan after | 39.0 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 24 Jan after | 38.1 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Jan after | 38.8 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 26 Jan after | 38.5 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 17 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 112 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 63: 4.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 69Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gog fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 January 2025 and 16 January 2025: 2 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 3,264 hectares (32.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Gog (3,284 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
- 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
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.