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Homosha fire, 6 January 2017 Homosha, Assosa

Out · last detection 12 Jan 2017, 23:17 UTC

The fire started on 6 January 2017 in Homosha, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,636 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 147th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 67 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
4,636ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
6 Jan 2017 – 12 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
6 Jan
2017
Heat detections
113
in a single hotspot: 41 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
494MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Jan12 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
42km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 48 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 693 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Homosha where it started
    4,635 ha reached on 6 Jan
    7.4 %
  2. Assosa
    30 ha
    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 Jan 30.6 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Jan 30.3 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Jan 30.0 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Jan 29.9 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Jan 31.5 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Jan 31.3 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Jan 31.5 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Jan after 31.7 °C 9 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Jan after 30.7 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Jan after 31.1 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Jan after 32.5 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Jan after 31.7 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Jan after 32.6 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Jan after 31.8 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Jan after 31.4 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Jan after 31.6 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Jan after 32.5 °C 14 % 31 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 · 30 Dec 2016
After · 19 Jan 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 · 113Every 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 Homosha fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 January 2017 and 12 January 2017: 7 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 4,636 hectares (46.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Homosha (4,635 ha, 7.4 %); Assosa (30 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very 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.