Skip to content
worldfires
ET · Ethiopia · →

Maji fire, January 2017 Maji, Menit Shasha

Out · last detection 8 Jan 2017, 10:15 UTC

The fire started on 2 January 2017 in Maji, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,121 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 70th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 134 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
3,121ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
2 Jan 2017 – 8 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
2 Jan
2017
Heat detections
81
in a single hotspot: 116 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Jan8 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2345678

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
28km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,181 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Maji where it started
    2,988 ha reached on 2 Jan
    0.7 %
  2. Menit Shasha
    156 ha reached on 2 Jan
    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)
2 Jan 33.7 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Jan 33.7 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Jan 33.6 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Jan 33.1 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Jan 33.4 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Jan 33.4 °C 14 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Jan 33.7 °C 13 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Jan after 33.6 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Jan after 33.4 °C 10 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Jan after 33.7 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Jan after 33.0 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Jan after 33.5 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Jan after 34.1 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Jan after 34.6 °C 13 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Jan after 34.5 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Jan after 33.6 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Jan after 33.7 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Dec 2016
After · 15 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 · 81Every 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 Maji fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 January 2017 and 8 January 2017: 7 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 3,121 hectares (31.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maji (2,988 ha, 0.7 %); Menit Shasha (156 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.