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Kafta Humera fire, 16 November 2021 Kafta Humera, Tahtay Adiyabo

Out · last detection 20 Nov 2021, 22:33 UTC

The fire started on 16 November 2021 in Kafta Humera, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,002 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Tigray since 2016 (of 21 with a page). Number 83 in Ethiopia in 2021, of 255.

Burnt area
4,002ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
16 Nov 2021 – 20 Nov 2021
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
16 Nov
2021
Heat detections
123
in a single hotspot: 46 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
988MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Nov 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Nov20 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
31km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 34 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
    4,011 ha reached on 13 Nov
    0.6 %
  2. Tahtay Adiyabo
    19 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)
16 Nov 37.0 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Nov 36.7 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Nov 36.9 °C 9 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Nov 37.5 °C 11 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Nov 35.2 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Nov after 35.0 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Nov after 35.5 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Nov after 36.2 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Nov after 37.0 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Nov after 35.2 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Nov after 36.9 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Nov after 36.6 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Nov after 36.7 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Nov after 36.4 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Nov after 36.3 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Nov 2021
After · 27 Nov 2021

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 · 123Every 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 16 November 2021 and 20 November 2021: 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 4,002 hectares (40.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kafta Humera (4,011 ha, 0.6 %); Tahtay Adiyabo (19 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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

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.