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Kiremu fire, December 2017 Kiremu, Wemberma, Yaso

Out · last detection 28 Dec 2017, 23:54 UTC

The fire started on 16 December 2017 in Kiremu, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,755 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Oromia since 2016 (of 264 with a page). Number 35 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
6,755ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
16 Dec 2017 – 27 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
16 Dec
2017
Heat detections
242
in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Dec27 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

16171819202122232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
35km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,049 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,060 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Kiremu where it started
    4,816 ha reached on 16 Dec
    4.4 %
  2. Wemberma
    1,887 ha reached on 16 Dec
    1.4 %
  3. Yaso
    97 ha reached on 19 Dec
    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 Dec 32.0 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Dec 32.2 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Dec 32.3 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Dec 31.9 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Dec 31.6 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Dec 32.2 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Dec 32.2 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Dec 31.9 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Dec 31.6 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Dec 31.4 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Dec 32.2 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Dec 32.4 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Dec after 31.5 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Dec after 31.7 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Dec after 31.2 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Dec after 31.0 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Jan after 30.6 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Jan after 29.7 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Jan after 30.2 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Jan after 29.9 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Jan after 30.4 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Jan after 29.8 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 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 · 242Every 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 Kiremu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 December 2017 and 27 December 2017: 12 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 6,755 hectares (67.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kiremu (4,816 ha, 4.4 %); Wemberma (1,887 ha, 1.4 %); Yaso (97 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.