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Hamer fire, September 2016 Hamer, Teltele

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2016, 11:49 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2016 in Hamer, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,752 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 29th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 66 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

Burnt area
4,752ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
6 Sept 2016 – 13 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
6 Sept
2016
Heat detections
125
in a single hotspot: 88 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

678910111213

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
45km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 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. Hamer where it started
    4,387 ha reached on 6 Sept
    0.7 %
  2. Teltele
    395 ha reached on 11 Sept
    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)
6 Sept 37.1 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Sept 36.0 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Sept 37.3 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Sept 36.6 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
10 Sept 36.3 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Sept 36.6 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Sept 36.4 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Sept 36.9 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Sept after 35.1 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Sept after 35.5 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Sept after 37.0 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Sept after 37.3 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept after 37.2 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Sept after 33.2 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept after 33.5 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Sept after 36.9 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Sept after 36.8 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Sept after 36.6 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2016
After · 20 Sept 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 · 125Every 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 Hamer fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 September 2016 and 13 September 2016: 8 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 4,752 hectares (47.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hamer (4,387 ha, 0.7 %); Teltele (395 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.