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Guba fire, 5 December 2017 Guba, Quara

Out · last detection 14 Dec 2017, 10:42 UTC

The fire started on 5 December 2017 in Guba, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,633 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 30th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 10 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
10,633ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
5 Dec 2017 – 13 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
5 Dec
2017
Heat detections
293
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Dec13 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

567891011121314

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
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 49 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,351 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Guba where it started
    8,921 ha
    1.3 %
  2. Quara
    1,786 ha
    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)
5 Dec 37.7 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Dec 37.3 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Dec 37.0 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Dec 37.1 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Dec 37.6 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Dec 37.3 °C 12 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Dec 37.9 °C 10 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Dec 38.1 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Dec 37.4 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Dec after 36.5 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Dec after 35.9 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
16 Dec after 36.9 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Dec after 37.0 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Dec after 37.6 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Dec after 37.9 °C 13 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Dec after 38.1 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Dec after 38.3 °C 11 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Dec after 38.5 °C 9 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Dec after 37.8 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Nov 2017
After · 20 Dec 2017

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 · 0Every 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 5 December 2017 and 13 December 2017: 9 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 10,633 hectares (106.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guba (8,921 ha, 1.3 %); Quara (1,786 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.

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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.