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Kamashi fire, January 2016 Kamashi, Agalometi

Out · last detection 19 Jan 2016, 23:50 UTC

The fire started on 13 January 2016 in Kamashi, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,486 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 153th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 72 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

Burnt area
4,486ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
13 Jan 2016 – 18 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
13 Jan
2016
Heat detections
107
in a single hotspot: 33 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
634MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jan18 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
35km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 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. Kamashi where it started
    3,652 ha reached on 14 Jan
    2.5 %
  2. Agalometi
    864 ha reached on 14 Jan
    0.5 %

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)
13 Jan 32.0 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Jan 33.6 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Jan 31.9 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Jan 31.8 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Jan 33.8 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Jan 32.5 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Jan after 32.5 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Jan after 33.5 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Jan after 34.2 °C 15 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jan after 34.1 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jan after 34.1 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Jan after 32.8 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Jan after 33.6 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Jan after 33.4 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Jan after 32.4 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Jan after 31.7 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Jan 2016
After · 25 Jan 2016

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 · 107Every 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 Kamashi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 January 2016 and 18 January 2016: 6 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 4,486 hectares (44.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kamashi (3,652 ha, 2.5 %); Agalometi (864 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.