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Guzamn fire, December 2023 Guzamn, Baso Liben

Out · last detection 21 Dec 2023, 10:29 UTC

The fire started on 12 December 2023 in Guzamn, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,733 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 98th largest in Amhara since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 55 in Ethiopia in 2023, of 101.

Burnt area
2,733ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
12 Dec 2023 – 20 Dec 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
12 Dec
2023
Heat detections
111
in a single hotspot: 53 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Dec 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Dec20 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
28km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

33% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 913 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Guzamn where it started
    2,714 ha reached on 11 Dec
    2.6 %
  2. Baso Liben
    35 ha reached on 19 Dec
    0.0 %

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)
12 Dec 32.5 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Dec 32.6 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
14 Dec 32.0 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Dec 32.3 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
16 Dec 30.9 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Dec 32.9 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Dec 31.4 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Dec 31.4 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Dec 34.1 °C 25 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
21 Dec after 33.1 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Dec after 33.3 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Dec after 34.1 °C 22 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Dec after 33.4 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Dec after 33.3 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Dec after 33.1 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Dec after 33.1 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Dec after 32.1 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Dec after 32.4 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Dec after 32.4 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Dec 2023
After · 27 Dec 2023

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 · 111Every 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 Guzamn fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 December 2023 and 20 December 2023: 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 2,733 hectares (27.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guzamn (2,714 ha, 2.6 %); Baso Liben (35 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class 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.