Guba fire, 28 March 2023 Guba
The fire started on 28 March 2023 in Guba, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,944 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 341th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 45 in Ethiopia in 2023, of 101.
- Burnt area
- 2,944ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 28 Mar 2023 – 30 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Mar
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 92
- in a single hotspot: 77 MW
- Danger at start
- 63
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 832MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,812 ha in 2016, 1,351 ha in 2017, 629 ha in 2018, 1,373 ha in 2019, 1,931 ha in 2020, 775 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,723 ha that had burned before.
- 1,204 ha Guba fire, April 2020 2,949 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 803 ha Guba fire, December 2017 10,633 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 775 ha Guba fire, December 2021 9,044 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 657 ha Quara fire, November 2016 28,159 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 548 ha Guba fire, December 2017 5,347 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 527 ha Guba fire, December 2019 11,110 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 348 ha Guba fire, December 2020 8,420 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 141 ha Guba fire, December 2020 2,399 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Guba where it started2,965 ha reached on 28 Mar0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Mar | 39.6 °C | 7 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 29 Mar | 39.3 °C | 7 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 30 Mar | 39.1 °C | 6 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 31 Mar after | 40.5 °C | 3 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 1 Apr after | 38.1 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 2 Apr after | 39.5 °C | 7 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 3 Apr after | 41.2 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 4 Apr after | 42.4 °C | 5 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 5 Apr after | 41.2 °C | 7 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 6 Apr after | 41.4 °C | 5 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 7 Apr after | 40.8 °C | 4 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 8 Apr after | 42.5 °C | 4 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 9 Apr after | 41.2 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 92Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 28,159 haQuara22 November 2016 · 15 days · 6 km away
- 12,439 haGuba29 December 2025 · 15 days · 9 km away
- 12,870 haGuba21 January 2026 · 19 days · 13 km away
- 16,681 haQuara10 December 2024 · 15 days · 34 km away
- 15,551 haQuara16 November 2017 · 8 days · 35 km away
- 15,764 haQuara21 November 2021 · 11 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Guba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 March 2023 and 30 March 2023: 3 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 2,944 hectares (29.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Guba (2,965 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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
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.