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Itang fire, 16 December 2016 Itang

Out · last detection 24 Dec 2016, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 16 December 2016 in Itang, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,928 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 187th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 93 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,928ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
16 Dec 2016 – 23 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Dec
2016
Heat detections
111
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
684MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Dec23 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

16171819202324

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
30km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 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. Itang where it started
    3,950 ha reached on 13 Dec
    1.8 %

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)
16 Dec 35.8 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
17 Dec 36.5 °C 27 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Dec 36.3 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Dec 35.3 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Dec 36.7 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Dec 36.6 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Dec 36.8 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Dec 37.0 °C 28 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Dec after 37.9 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Dec after 37.8 °C 26 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Dec after 36.2 °C 26 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Dec after 36.0 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Dec after 37.0 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Dec after 38.7 °C 19 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Dec after 38.7 °C 21 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Dec after 37.4 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Jan after 37.1 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Jan after 38.4 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Dec 2016
After · 30 Dec 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 · 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 Itang fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 December 2016 and 23 December 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 3,928 hectares (39.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Itang (3,950 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.