Skip to content
worldfires
ET · Ethiopia · →

Mengesh fire, January 2017 Dima, Mengesh

Out · last detection 6 Feb 2017, 11:12 UTC

The fire started on 24 January 2017 in Mengesh, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,638 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 66th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 18 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
8,638ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
24 Jan 2017 – 5 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
24 Jan
2017
Heat detections
216
in a single hotspot: 81 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jan5 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

2425262728293031123456

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
29km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 52 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 14 Feb.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Dima
    7,701 ha reached on 25 Jan
    1.0 %
  2. Mengesh where it started
    1,001 ha reached on 24 Jan
    0.6 %

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)
24 Jan 36.4 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Jan 35.7 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Jan 35.7 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Jan 36.8 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jan 36.1 °C 19 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Jan 35.5 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Jan 34.9 °C 28 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Jan 35.3 °C 26 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Feb 35.6 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Feb 34.0 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Feb 35.3 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Feb 33.9 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Feb 35.9 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Feb after 36.7 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Feb after 35.6 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Feb after 36.9 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Feb after 35.1 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Feb after 37.0 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Feb after 36.9 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Feb after 37.3 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Feb after 36.5 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 38
14 Feb after 30.4 °C 41 % 27 km/h 2.5 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jan 2017
After · 12 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 · 216Every 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 Mengesh fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 January 2017 and 5 February 2017: 13 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 8,638 hectares (86.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dima (7,701 ha, 1.0 %); Mengesh (1,001 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 29 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
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.