Skip to content
worldfires
ET · Ethiopia · →

Guba fire, February 2016 Guba, Dangura

Out · last detection 17 Feb 2016, 23:05 UTC

The fire started on 11 February 2016 in Guba, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,465 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 244th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 113 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

Burnt area
3,465ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
11 Feb 2016 – 17 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
11 Feb
2016
Heat detections
188
in a single hotspot: 34 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
759MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Feb17 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

11121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
40km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Guba where it started
    2,683 ha reached on 4 Feb
    0.4 %
  2. Dangura
    807 ha reached on 4 Feb
    0.2 %

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)
11 Feb 33.9 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Feb 34.3 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Feb 35.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Feb 35.9 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Feb 35.1 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Feb 36.0 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Feb 36.4 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Feb after 36.6 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Feb after 37.4 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Feb after 38.2 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Feb after 37.4 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Feb after 34.8 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Feb after 34.1 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Feb after 36.4 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Feb after 36.6 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Feb after 36.7 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Feb after 37.0 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Feb 2016
After · 24 Feb 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 · 188Every 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 Guba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 February 2016 and 17 February 2016: 7 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 3,465 hectares (34.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guba (2,683 ha, 0.4 %); Dangura (807 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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
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.