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Kafta Humera fire, November 2017 Kafta Humera, Tahtay Adiyabo

Out · last detection 10 Nov 2017, 11:20 UTC

The fire started on 2 November 2017 in Kafta Humera, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,768 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Tigray since 2016 (of 21 with a page). Number 169 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.5 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
2,768ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
2 Nov 2017 – 10 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
2 Nov
2017
Heat detections
77
in a single hotspot: 21 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
699MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Nov10 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2345810

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
31km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 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. Kafta Humera where it started
    2,773 ha reached on 2 Nov
    0.4 %
  2. Tahtay Adiyabo
    15 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)
2 Nov 37.4 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Nov 37.3 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Nov 36.6 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Nov 36.2 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Nov 35.8 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Nov 36.6 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Nov 37.0 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Nov 36.8 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Nov 36.7 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Nov after 37.4 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Nov after 37.2 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Nov after 37.2 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Nov after 37.8 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Nov after 37.8 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Nov after 37.9 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Nov after 37.5 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Nov after 37.3 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Nov after 36.8 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Nov after 37.1 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Oct 2017
After · 17 Nov 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 · 77Every 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 Kafta Humera fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 November 2017 and 10 November 2017: 9 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 2,768 hectares (27.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kafta Humera (2,773 ha, 0.4 %); Tahtay Adiyabo (15 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.