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Kamashi fire, 10 January 2017 Kamashi, Agalometi

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2017, 22:58 UTC

The fire started on 10 January 2017 in Kamashi, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,924 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 188th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 83 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
3,924ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
10 Jan 2017 – 14 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
10 Jan
2017
Heat detections
120
in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
857MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jan14 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

10111213

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
25km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,177 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Kamashi where it started
    2,281 ha reached on 7 Jan
    1.6 %
  2. Agalometi
    1,668 ha reached on 8 Jan
    1.0 %

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)
10 Jan 31.4 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jan 30.9 °C 7 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Jan 30.8 °C 5 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Jan 31.4 °C 6 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Jan 31.3 °C 9 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Jan after 31.3 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jan after 32.4 °C 11 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Jan after 32.3 °C 11 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Jan after 32.3 °C 9 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Jan after 32.3 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Jan after 31.3 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Jan after 31.9 °C 10 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Jan after 33.1 °C 12 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Jan after 33.2 °C 11 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Jan after 32.6 °C 10 % 23 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 · 3 Jan 2017
After · 21 Jan 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 · 120Every 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 10 January 2017 and 14 January 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 3,924 hectares (39.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kamashi (2,281 ha, 1.6 %); Agalometi (1,668 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 25 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.