Omhajer fire, January 2019 Omhajer
The fire started on 19 January 2019 in Omhajer, Eritrea, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,691 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the largest fire in Gash-Barka since 2016 (of 42 with a page). The largest in Eritrea in 2019, of 8.
- Burnt area
- 7,691ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 19 Jan 2019 – 21 Jan 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- subzones
- Started on
- 19 Jan
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 213
- in a single hotspot: 49 MW
- Danger at start
- 58
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- 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
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Omhajer where it started7,641 ha reached on 19 Jan1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jan | 37.0 °C | 8 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 20 Jan | 37.5 °C | 9 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 21 Jan | 37.5 °C | 9 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 22 Jan after | 37.5 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 23 Jan after | 37.6 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 24 Jan after | 37.3 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 25 Jan after | 39.0 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 26 Jan after | 40.1 °C | 8 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 27 Jan after | 39.7 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 28 Jan after | 39.0 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 29 Jan after | 39.9 °C | 10 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 30 Jan after | 38.1 °C | 9 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 31 Jan after | 39.2 °C | 3 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
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.
Detections table · 213Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,818 haKafta HumeraOctober 2019 · 4 days · 15 km away
- 2,823 haKafta Humera22 October 2025 · 10 days · 16 km away
- 3,024 haKafta HumeraNovember 2016 · 5 days · 17 km away
- 5,786 haOmhajer1 March 2020 · 3 days · 21 km away
- 8,430 haKafta HumeraDecember 2019 · 7 days · 23 km away
- 3,504 haKafta Humera12 December 2017 · 6 days · 23 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Omhajer fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 January 2019 and 21 January 2019: 3 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 7,691 hectares (76.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Omhajer (7,641 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Eritrea (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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.