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Lare fire, January 2017 Jikawo, Gambella Wild Life Reserve, Lare

Out · last detection 4 Feb 2017, 22:46 UTC

The fire started on 25 January 2017 in Lare, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,630 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 67th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 19 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
8,630ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
25 Jan 2017 – 3 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
25 Jan
2017
Heat detections
552
in a single hotspot: 151 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
6.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jan3 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

252627282930311234

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
46km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,266 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Jikawo
    4,908 ha reached on 19 Jan
    4.4 %
  2. Gambella Wild Life Reserve
    2,330 ha reached on 28 Jan
    4.9 %
  3. Lare where it started
    1,448 ha reached on 18 Jan
    2.2 %

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)
25 Jan 40.0 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Jan 39.6 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Jan 40.8 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Jan 40.8 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Jan 40.2 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Jan 39.1 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Jan 40.3 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Feb 39.9 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
2 Feb 38.5 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
3 Feb 38.5 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
4 Feb after 39.1 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Feb after 39.7 °C 14 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Feb after 40.2 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
7 Feb after 39.7 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Feb after 40.8 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Feb after 39.9 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Feb after 41.9 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Feb after 41.0 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Feb after 40.9 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Feb after 40.3 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jan 2017
After · 10 Feb 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 · 552Every 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 Lare fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 January 2017 and 3 February 2017: 10 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 8,630 hectares (86.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Jikawo (4,908 ha, 4.4 %); Gambella Wild Life Reserve (2,330 ha, 4.9 %); Lare (1,448 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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.