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Mieso fire, November 2016 Mieso

Out · last detection 16 Nov 2016, 10:10 UTC

The fire started on 11 November 2016 in Mieso, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,876 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 122th largest in Oromia since 2016 (of 264 with a page). Number 167 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.3 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
2,876ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
11 Nov 2016 – 15 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
11 Nov
2016
Heat detections
70
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
339MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Nov15 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
41km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Mieso where it started
    2,896 ha reached on 11 Nov
    1.1 %

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)
11 Nov 28.6 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Nov 28.5 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Nov 27.8 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Nov 28.3 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Nov 29.7 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Nov after 30.1 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Nov after 31.1 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Nov after 30.9 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Nov after 29.7 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
20 Nov after 30.6 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Nov after 30.6 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
22 Nov after 30.2 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm High 27
23 Nov after 31.9 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Nov after 32.3 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
25 Nov after 28.7 °C 49 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm High 25

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Nov 2016
After · 22 Nov 2016

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 · 70Every 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 Mieso fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 November 2016 and 15 November 2016: 5 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 2,876 hectares (28.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mieso (2,896 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.

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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.