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Guba fire, 11 November 2016 Guba

Out · last detection 23 Nov 2016, 11:20 UTC

The fire started on 11 November 2016 in Guba, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,224 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 70th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 33 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

Burnt area
7,224ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
11 Nov 2016 – 22 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
11 Nov
2016
Heat detections
254
in a single hotspot: 134 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Nov22 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

11121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
32km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 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. Guba where it started
    7,272 ha reached on 6 Nov
    1.0 %

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)
11 Nov 37.2 °C 18 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Nov 37.4 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Nov 38.1 °C 15 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Nov 37.5 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Nov 38.0 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Nov 37.9 °C 12 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Nov 38.9 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Nov 37.3 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Nov 37.8 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Nov 38.4 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Nov 38.4 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Nov 38.7 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Nov after 38.0 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Nov after 36.2 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Nov after 34.7 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Nov after 35.6 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Nov after 36.4 °C 15 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Nov after 37.3 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Nov after 37.5 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Nov after 38.0 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Dec after 37.8 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Dec after 36.1 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Nov 2016
After · 29 Nov 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 · 254Every 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 November 2016 and 22 November 2016: 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 7,224 hectares (72.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Guba (7,272 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.