Burned area
satellite only4,877ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 6 Feb 2021 – 21 Feb 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
ET · Ethiopia · –
Mandura fire, February 2021 Mandura
Out · last detection 20 Feb 2021, 10:16 UTC
The fire started on 6 February 2021 in Mandura, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,877 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 122th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 635 with a page). Number 62 in Ethiopia in 2021, of 255.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-27matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only16days
6 Feb 2021 to 21 Feb 2021: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 20 Feb 2021, 10:16 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only6 Feb 2021
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 6 Feb 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only155
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 101 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 6 Feb 2021 – 21 Feb 2021
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only1,621MW
Total radiative power on 8 February 2021; hotspots that day: 53.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 8 Feb 2021
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model39.0FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 6 Feb 2021, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model32.3°C · 24% RH
High of 32.3 °C and minimum humidity of 24% on 10 February 2021; gusts of 35 km/h on 19 February 2021.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 6 Feb 2021 – 21 Feb 2021
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 500people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 0.31 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 14 February 2021 → 21 February 2021.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 27 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 4,877 ha
- Dates
- 6 Feb 2021 – 21 Feb 2021
- Name
- Mandura
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/mandura-2021-02?v=2026-10-27A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire mandura-2021-02.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-02-06 | 11 | 43 | 28.6 | 13.2 | 19 | 11.8 | 29.2 | 0 | 39 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-07 | 19 | 113 | 29.2 | 13.3 | 19 | 12.8 | 31.3 | 0 | 40.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-08 | 53 | 1,621 | 30.7 | 14.2 | 20 | 12.3 | 33.5 | 0 | 40.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-09 | 18 | 334 | 31.1 | 14.7 | 24 | 9.8 | 29.2 | 0 | 37.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-10 | 23 | 204 | 32.3 | 14.1 | 24 | 10.4 | 28.8 | 0 | 38.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-11 | 9 | 69 | 30.7 | 15.5 | 20 | 10.6 | 27.4 | 0 | 39 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-12 | 11 | 234 | 30.9 | 15.6 | 18 | 8.5 | 24.8 | 0 | 37.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-13 | 3 | 66 | 31.4 | 16 | 18 | 8.9 | 24.8 | 0 | 38 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-14 | 1 | 4 | 31.9 | 16.6 | 21 | 11.6 | 29.5 | 0 | 40.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-15 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 17.9 | 22 | 13.2 | 32.4 | 0 | 42.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-16 | 1 | 3 | 32.3 | 18.8 | 21 | 13.2 | 33.5 | 0 | 42.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-17 | 0 | 0 | 29.4 | 20.8 | 25 | 11.8 | 30.2 | 0 | 39.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-18 | 4 | 9 | 29.5 | 17.5 | 24 | 13.2 | 32.4 | 0 | 40.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-19 | 0 | 0 | 29.8 | 19.1 | 26 | 14.1 | 34.6 | 0 | 40.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-20 | 2 | 18 | 30.4 | 16.6 | 28 | 12.2 | 31 | 0 | 37.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-21 | 0 | 0 | 30.2 | 16.5 | 25 | 11.2 | 27.7 | 0 | 37.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-22 | 0 | 0 | 31.5 | 18 | 25 | 9.4 | 28.1 | 0 | 35.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-23 | 0 | 0 | 30.8 | 20.8 | 27 | 10.3 | 30.6 | 0 | 36.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-24 | 0 | 0 | 31.3 | 20.7 | 25 | 13.3 | 32.4 | 0 | 39.8 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-25 | 0 | 0 | 31.9 | 18.3 | 23 | 9.1 | 27.7 | 0 | 36.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-26 | 0 | 0 | 32.7 | 17.9 | 23 | 10.1 | 29.9 | 0 | 37.3 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-27 | 0 | 0 | 32.6 | 17.9 | 22 | 7.8 | 25.6 | 0 | 35.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-28 | 0 | 0 | 32.1 | 21.9 | 16 | 7.5 | 24.1 | 0 | 37.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-03-01 | 0 | 0 | 32.6 | 17.2 | 21 | 9.8 | 28.8 | 0 | 39.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2021-03-02 | 0 | 0 | 30.7 | 20.5 | 25 | 9.2 | 25.9 | 0 | 37.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-03-03 | 0 | 0 | 30.8 | 21.8 | 27 | 7.7 | 21.2 | 0 | 35.4 | alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 4,877ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 6 Feb 2021 – 21 Feb 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Feb
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 155
- in a single hotspot: 101 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 226MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
6 Feb21 Feb
20 Feb 2021
How it evolved, day by day
8 Feb
12 Feb
16 Feb
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
18%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,501 ha in 2016, 3,608 ha in 2017, 248 ha in 2018, 3,178 ha in 2019, 3,199 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,787 ha that had burned before.
- 2,601 ha Mandura fire, February 2017 5,513 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,965 ha Dangura fire, February 2016 89,847 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,778 ha Mandura fire, February 2020 4,836 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,359 ha Mandura fire, February 2020 3,574 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,297 ha Mandura fire, March 2019 2,221 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,293 ha Mandura fire, March 2019 2,040 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,080 ha Mandura fire, March 2016 2,201 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 588 ha Pawe Special fire, February 2019 2,749 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Mandura where it started4,909 ha reached on 6 Feb4.5 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area0.31 ha
Residents≈ 500
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.31 hectares of built-up land and about 500 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with 60 days without rain: 37 % of the area in Ethiopia
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Feb | 28.6 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Feb | 29.2 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Feb | 30.7 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Feb | 31.1 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 10 Feb | 32.3 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 11 Feb | 30.7 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 12 Feb | 30.9 °C | 18 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 13 Feb | 31.4 °C | 18 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 14 Feb | 31.9 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Feb | 32.0 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 16 Feb | 32.3 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 17 Feb | 29.4 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Feb | 29.5 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 19 Feb | 29.8 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 20 Feb | 30.4 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 21 Feb | 30.2 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 22 Feb after | 31.5 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Feb after | 30.8 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Feb after | 31.3 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Feb after | 31.9 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Feb after | 32.7 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 27 Feb after | 32.6 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Feb after | 32.1 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 1 Mar after | 32.6 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Mar after | 30.7 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 3 Mar after | 30.8 °C | 27 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 39.0, a minimum humidity of 19% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 40.
FWI at the start
39.0
Minimum humidity
19 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Mandura fire, February 2021
4,877 ha
16 days
FWI 39.0
Min. humidity 19 %
Dibat fire, February 2025
2,317 ha
14 days
FWI 39.3
Min. humidity 19 %
77 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mandura fire, March 2021
42,944 ha
22 days
FWI 39.1
Min. humidity 20 %
32 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Dangura fire, January 2022
3,676 ha
5 days
FWI 37.8
Min. humidity 19 %
47 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Dibat fire, February 2024
3,600 ha
16 days
FWI 40.9
Min. humidity 19 %
48 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Bulen fire, January 2021
2,444 ha
9 days
FWI 38.7
Min. humidity 19 %
133 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 9 days
- median duration
- 2,872 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.1 mm
- rain at the end (median; 1 of 40 had it)
It was 1.7 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 16 days, against 9 days.
Only 7 of its 40 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 39 of 40, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.1 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
35km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 21 Feb, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 1 of 40, with a median of 2.1 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 30 Jan 2021
After · 28 Feb 2021
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 155Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mandura fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 February 2021 to 21 February 2021 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 February 2021 to 14 February 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,877 hectares (48.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mandura (4,909 ha, 4.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 40. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 2,872 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 7 of its 40 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 39 of 40, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.1 mm.
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
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 14 February 2021 → 21 February 2021.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 6 February 2021 to 14 February 2021. 155 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.