Itang fire, 19 January 2026 Itang, Abobo, Gambella Wild Life Reserve
The fire started on 19 January 2026 in Itang, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 61 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,587 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.
Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:
- 76,225 haJoreFebruary 2026 · 45 days
- 15,144 haLare27 January 2026 · 49 days
- 10,013 haItang2 January 2026 · 18 days
- 5,888 haMaiwutFebruary 2026 · 31 days
- 4,860 haJikawo6 February 2026 · 21 days
- 3,642 haLare6 January 2026 · 25 days
- 2,463 haGambela ZuriaJanuary 2026 · 17 days
- 2,405 haAboboJanuary 2026 · 5 days
It is the 14th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 4 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 187.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Abobo · 2017Itang · 2017Abobo · 2021Itang · 2023
- Burnt area
- 22,587ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 61days
- 19 Jan 2026 – 20 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 19 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 1,034
- in a single hotspot: 123 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 196MW
- detected power per day, on average
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. Rain came after the fire: 17.2 mm on 21 Mar.
This area had burned before
86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,942 ha in 2016, 9,879 ha in 2017, 2,845 ha in 2018, 1,820 ha in 2019, 4,948 ha in 2020, 4,780 ha in 2021, 3,899 ha in 2022, 5,397 ha in 2023, 5,097 ha in 2024, 3,746 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 19,464 ha that had burned before.
- 4,861 ha Abobo fire, January 2017 5,880 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,273 ha Itang fire, January 2017 7,473 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,197 ha Abobo fire, February 2021 6,637 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,094 ha Itang fire, January 2023 2,196 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,779 ha Abobo fire, March 2024 2,110 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,698 ha Itang fire, January 2025 2,239 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,260 ha Gambella Wild Life Reserve fire, January 2018 4,031 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,215 ha Gambella Wild Life Reserve fire, March 2020 3,545 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Itang where it started10,792 ha reached on 19 Jan4.9 %
-
9,608 ha reached on 19 Jan3.1 %
-
2,332 ha reached on 28 Jan4.9 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 0.08 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jan | 38.0 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Jan | 38.7 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 21 Jan | 38.7 °C | 25 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Jan | 38.1 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Jan | 38.8 °C | 18 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Jan | 40.1 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Jan | 40.8 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 26 Jan | 40.9 °C | 11 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 27 Jan | 39.6 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 28 Jan | 38.7 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Jan | 39.3 °C | 18 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Jan | 39.2 °C | 19 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 31 Jan | 37.3 °C | 25 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Feb | 35.4 °C | 29 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 2 Feb | 38.2 °C | 19 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 3 Feb | 39.9 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Feb | 40.2 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Feb | 36.4 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 6 Feb | 39.7 °C | 22 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Feb | 39.6 °C | 15 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 8 Feb | 39.1 °C | 23 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 9 Feb | 37.9 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Feb | 36.9 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Feb | 39.2 °C | 16 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 12 Feb | 37.5 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Feb | 40.5 °C | 13 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 14 Feb | 39.0 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 15 Feb | 39.1 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Feb | 37.9 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 17 Feb | 40.2 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Feb | 39.5 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 19 Feb | 36.2 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Feb | 38.1 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Feb | 39.0 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Feb | 38.5 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Feb | 38.6 °C | 14 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Feb | 38.1 °C | 10 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Feb | 38.2 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 26 Feb | 38.1 °C | 14 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 27 Feb | 38.3 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 28 Feb | 37.5 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 1 Mar | 38.0 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 2 Mar | 36.9 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 3 Mar | 37.4 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 4 Mar | 37.9 °C | 8 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 5 Mar | 37.4 °C | 8 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 6 Mar | 37.6 °C | 9 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 7 Mar | 38.5 °C | 13 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 8 Mar | 39.7 °C | 10 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 9 Mar | 39.9 °C | 8 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 10 Mar | 39.0 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 11 Mar | 38.0 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Mar | 41.0 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 13 Mar | 40.0 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 14 Mar | 40.7 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Mar | 39.2 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 16 Mar | 40.0 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 17 Mar | 37.9 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 2.3 mm | High 27 |
| 18 Mar | 34.5 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 1.9 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 19 Mar | 35.1 °C | 33 % | 23 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Mar | 39.5 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.9 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Mar after | 29.4 °C | 50 % | 21 km/h | 17.2 mm | Very low 3 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 26 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 113 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 72: 4.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 1,034Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Itang fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 January 2026 to 20 March 2026 (61 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 January 2026 to 16 March 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 22,587 hectares (225.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Itang (10,792 ha, 4.9 %); Abobo (9,608 ha, 3.1 %); Gambella Wild Life Reserve (2,332 ha, 4.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 24 January 2026 to 16 March 2026. 1,034 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.