Satellites first detected fire on 28 October 2026 in Itang, Ethiopia. It has been active for 10 days, with 166 heat detections and an area with fire of about 2,156 hectares rebuilt from them, spread across 2 municipalities.
GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in August 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.
matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
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Burned area
satellite only
≈ 2,156ha
Estimated from hotspots: no perimeter has been published yet.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
28 Oct 2026 – 6 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate from the VIIRS pixels that saw fire. It will change when the perimeter is published.
Duration by satellite
satellite only
10days
From 28 Oct 2026 to today: still being detected.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
last detection: 6 Nov 2026, 11:38 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only
28 Oct 2026
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
28 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only
166
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 257 MW.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP + NOAA-20)
Date
28 Oct 2026 – 6 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only
887MW
Total radiative power on 4 November 2026; hotspots that day: 44.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
Date
4 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model
20.8FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 0.
Source
WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
Date
28 Oct 2026, local noon
Model
ECMWF IFS 0,25° · Open-Meteo.com · provisional
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings ›
Weather during the fire
model
39.9°C · 21% RH
High of 39.9 °C and minimum humidity of 21% on 5 November 2026; gusts of 34 km/h on 29 October 2026.
Source
weather model at the fire’s grid cell
Date
28 Oct 2026 – 6 Nov 2026
Model
ECMWF IFS 0,25° · Open-Meteo.com · provisional
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
ⓘThis page is not in the change log yet: its first snapshot is saved tonight. What follows is reconstructed from each source’s date.
Show
· reconstructedweather
Weather and FWI computed from the forecast (provisional until ERA5 arrives)
GWIS (Copernicus) has not yet published the perimeter of this fire. It rebuilds it from hotspots, which can take several days, and it does not always arrive. For now the area is the one rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per pixel). If the perimeter arrives, this page picks it up on its own and keeps the same address.
Is it still active?
No detections since 6 Nov 2026, 11:38 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Area with fire
≈ 2,156ha
rebuilt from hotspots, no official perimeter yet
Duration
10days
28 Oct 2026 – 6 Nov 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
28 Oct
2026
Heat detections
166
in a single hotspot: 257 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
320MW
detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
28 Oct6 Nov
Play back6 Nov 2026
How it evolved, day by day
28 Oct1 Nov4 Nov
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
40°high
34km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity
It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
Area with fire inside each municipality, rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per VIIRS pixel). An estimate until the official perimeter arrives. 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.
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) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives
Day
High
Min. humidity
Peak gust
Rain
Danger (FWI)
28 Oct
37.5 °C
29 %
28 km/h
0.7 mm
Moderate 21
29 Oct
39.2 °C
22 %
34 km/h
0.7 mm
High 27
30 Oct
36.8 °C
33 %
30 km/h
1.2 mm
High 27
31 Oct
37.6 °C
28 %
23 km/h
1.0 mm
High 29
1 Nov
36.3 °C
33 %
22 km/h
0.4 mm
High 23
2 Nov
38.5 °C
23 %
26 km/h
0.4 mm
High 34
3 Nov
38.6 °C
23 %
26 km/h
0.8 mm
High 33
4 Nov
39.2 °C
23 %
26 km/h
0.1 mm
High 33
5 Nov
39.9 °C
21 %
22 km/h
0.0 mm
High 35
6 Nov
39.5 °C
22 %
25 km/h
0.0 mm
Very high 40
7 Nov after
39.4 °C
22 %
28 km/h
0.1 mm
High 38
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 21 Oct 2026
After · 6 Nov 2026
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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· 166Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.›
⬇ Download CSVTimes in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 28 October 2026 to 6 November 2026 (10 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.
How much area did it burn?
There is no perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 2,156 hectares with fire (21.6 km²), a rough figure; GWIS will give its own when it publishes the perimeter, which can take several days.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Itang (1,932 ha, 0.9 %); Anfilo (224 ha, 0.2 %).
Is the Itang fire still active?
No fire detections since 6 Nov 2026, 11:38 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.
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 errorHow we know this›
No perimeter yet: the area (≈ 2,156 ha) is estimated by counting VIIRS pixels with fire, about 14 ha each.
Dates of the first and last VIIRS detection of the cluster. 166 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.
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.