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Mirab Armacho fire, December 2016 Mirab Armacho, Metema

Out · last detection 15 Dec 2016, 23:41 UTC

The fire started on 12 December 2016 in Mirab Armacho, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,684 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 101th largest in Amhara since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 191 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.8 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
2,684ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
12 Dec 2016 – 15 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
12 Dec
2016
Heat detections
86
in a single hotspot: 24 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
400MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Dec15 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

12131415

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
32km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Mirab Armacho where it started
    2,698 ha reached on 9 Dec
    1.0 %
  2. Metema
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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)
12 Dec 37.0 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Dec 36.0 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Dec 36.5 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Dec 35.4 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Dec after 34.8 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Dec after 35.8 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Dec after 36.1 °C 8 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Dec after 35.3 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Dec after 35.8 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
21 Dec after 35.9 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Dec after 36.7 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Dec after 37.9 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Dec after 38.0 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Dec after 37.4 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Dec 2016
After · 22 Dec 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 · 86Every 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 Mirab Armacho fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 December 2016 and 15 December 2016: 4 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 2,684 hectares (26.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mirab Armacho (2,698 ha, 1.0 %); Metema (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.

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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.