Menge fire, 29 February 2024 Menge
The fire started on 29 February 2024 in Menge, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,853 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 368th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 38 in Ethiopia in 2024, of 87.
The power measured by the satellite is low (26.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 2,853ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 29 Feb 2024 – 1 Mar 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 29 Feb
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 83
- in a single hotspot: 26 MW
- Danger at start
- 57
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 669MW
- 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
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 43 ha in 2016, 3 ha in 2017, 520 ha in 2018, 1,132 ha in 2019, 1,045 ha in 2020, 2,058 ha in 2021, 13 ha in 2022, 1,989 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,810 ha that had burned before.
- 2,058 ha Menge fire, February 2021 7,417 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 233 ha Menge fire, February 2020 3,464 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 43 ha Menge fire, January 2016 4,594 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 13 ha Menge fire, January 2022 2,093 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Menge where it started2,871 ha reached on 29 Feb1.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Feb | 37.2 °C | 5 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 1 Mar | 38.3 °C | 5 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 2 Mar after | 38.1 °C | 6 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 3 Mar after | 37.9 °C | 6 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 4 Mar after | 37.8 °C | 8 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 5 Mar after | 38.1 °C | 9 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 6 Mar after | 37.7 °C | 10 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 7 Mar after | 36.8 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 8 Mar after | 37.0 °C | 7 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 9 Mar after | 38.4 °C | 8 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 10 Mar after | 38.7 °C | 11 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 11 Mar after | 38.6 °C | 9 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
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 2 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 88 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 41: 2.8 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 · 83Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,417 haMenge5 February 2021 · 8 days · 2 km away
- 6,024 haMenge24 February 2020 · 10 days · 13 km away
- 6,944 haMenge5 January 2017 · 3 days · 19 km away
- 4,859 haMenge1 February 2016 · 4 days · 23 km away
- 5,306 haBilidigilu14 January 2017 · 6 days · 30 km away
- 4,636 haHomosha6 January 2017 · 7 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Menge fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 February 2024 and 1 March 2024: 2 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 2,853 hectares (28.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Menge (2,871 ha, 1.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.
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.