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Kafta Humera fire, 23 December 2017 Kafta Humera, Welkait

Out · last detection 27 Dec 2017, 22:31 UTC

The fire started on 23 December 2017 in Kafta Humera, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,092 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Tigray since 2016 (of 21 with a page). Number 139 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
3,092ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
23 Dec 2017 – 27 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
23 Dec
2017
Heat detections
84
in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
457MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Dec27 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
29km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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
    2,756 ha reached on 23 Dec
    0.4 %
  2. Welkait
    354 ha reached on 25 Dec
    0.1 %

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)
23 Dec 33.4 °C 7 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Dec 33.2 °C 6 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Dec 32.2 °C 7 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Dec 31.9 °C 7 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Dec 32.2 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
28 Dec after 31.7 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Dec after 31.9 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Dec after 31.9 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Dec after 32.0 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Jan after 30.8 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Jan after 30.1 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Jan after 30.7 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Jan after 29.6 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jan after 29.9 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Jan after 29.8 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Dec 2017
After · 3 Jan 2018

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 · 84Every 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 23 December 2017 and 27 December 2017: 5 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 3,092 hectares (30.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kafta Humera (2,756 ha, 0.4 %); Welkait (354 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.