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Guangua fire, December 2018 Dibat, Guangua

Out · last detection 25 Dec 2018, 22:26 UTC

The fire started on 14 December 2018 in Guangua, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,833 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 43th largest in Amhara since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 16 in Ethiopia in 2018, of 96.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.7 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
4,833ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
14 Dec 2018 – 25 Dec 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Dec
2018
Heat detections
176
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
356MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Dec 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Dec25 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
22km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,194 ha in 2016, 1,488 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,847 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dibat
    4,627 ha reached on 14 Dec
    2.1 %
  2. Guangua where it started
    237 ha reached on 7 Dec
    0.1 %

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)
14 Dec 31.6 °C 39 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Dec 33.6 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
16 Dec 33.0 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
17 Dec 33.7 °C 32 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Dec 34.2 °C 24 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Dec 33.9 °C 26 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Dec 33.9 °C 28 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Dec 34.2 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Dec 33.5 °C 28 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Dec 33.0 °C 31 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Dec 33.8 °C 30 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Dec 34.1 °C 27 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Dec after 34.5 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Dec after 34.6 °C 23 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Dec after 35.7 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Dec after 35.0 °C 22 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Dec after 35.1 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Dec after 34.1 °C 26 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Jan after 34.6 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Jan after 33.7 °C 24 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Jan after 34.2 °C 26 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Jan after 35.6 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Dec 2018
After · 1 Jan 2019

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 · 176Every 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 Guangua fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 December 2018 and 25 December 2018: 12 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 4,833 hectares (48.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dibat (4,627 ha, 2.1 %); Guangua (237 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 22 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.

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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.