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Guba fire, 19 December 2017 Guba, Quara

Out · last detection 23 Dec 2017, 11:13 UTC

The fire started on 19 December 2017 in Guba, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,514 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 151th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 68 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
4,514ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
19 Dec 2017 – 23 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
19 Dec
2017
Heat detections
128
in a single hotspot: 142 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Dec23 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1920212223

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
27km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,446 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Guba where it started
    3,944 ha reached on 18 Dec
    0.6 %
  2. Quara
    603 ha reached on 20 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)
19 Dec 38.0 °C 13 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Dec 38.2 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Dec 38.5 °C 11 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Dec 38.6 °C 9 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Dec 38.0 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Dec after 38.1 °C 7 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Dec after 36.6 °C 7 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Dec after 36.6 °C 8 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Dec after 37.3 °C 9 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Dec after 37.7 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Dec after 37.1 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Dec after 36.6 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
31 Dec after 35.7 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Jan after 34.7 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Jan after 33.5 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Dec 2017
After · 30 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 · 128Every 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 19 December 2017 and 23 December 2017: 5 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 4,514 hectares (45.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guba (3,944 ha, 0.6 %); Quara (603 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.