Maji fire, August 2026 Maji
The fire started on 23 August 2026 in Maji, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,213 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 150th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 149 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 2,213ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 23 Aug 2026 – 23 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 23 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 15
- in a single hotspot: 197 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,571 ha in 2016, 788 ha in 2017, 640 ha in 2020, 562 ha in 2021, 1,017 ha in 2022, 8 ha in 2023, 399 ha in 2024, 903 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,095 ha that had burned before.
- 1,571 ha Maji fire, February 2016 4,828 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,017 ha Maji fire, February 2022 2,352 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 788 ha Maji fire, December 2017 3,340 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 640 ha Maji fire, May 2020 2,157 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 562 ha Maji fire, February 2021 2,025 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Maji where it started2,227 ha reached on 23 Aug0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Aug | 38.7 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Aug after | 38.4 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Aug after | 37.6 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 26 Aug after | 38.8 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Aug after | 38.8 °C | 18 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 28 Aug after | 38.1 °C | 15 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 29 Aug after | 37.1 °C | 17 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 30 Aug after | 36.0 °C | 24 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 31 Aug after | 37.0 °C | 28 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 1 Sept after | 37.9 °C | 24 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 2 Sept after | 38.4 °C | 22 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 21 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 58 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 15Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Maji fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 August 2026 and 23 August 2026: 1 day 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 2,213 hectares (22.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Maji (2,227 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 38 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.
Report an error
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.