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Quara fire, 1 November 2017 Quara, Guba

Out · last detection 7 Nov 2017, 23:10 UTC

The fire started on 1 November 2017 in Quara, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,802 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 59th largest in Amhara since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 88 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.6 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
3,802ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
1 Nov 2017 – 6 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
1 Nov
2017
Heat detections
115
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
628MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Nov6 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

1234567

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
36km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,137 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Quara where it started
    3,795 ha reached on 30 Oct
    0.4 %
  2. Guba
    25 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)
1 Nov 35.7 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
2 Nov 37.7 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Nov 36.0 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Nov 37.4 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Nov 37.0 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Nov 37.0 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Nov after 37.9 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Nov after 38.5 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Nov after 38.7 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Nov after 39.1 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Nov after 38.6 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Nov after 38.2 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Nov after 38.3 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Nov after 38.5 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Nov after 39.5 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Nov after 39.5 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Oct 2017
After · 13 Nov 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 · 115Every 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 Quara fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 November 2017 and 6 November 2017: 6 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 3,802 hectares (38.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Quara (3,795 ha, 0.4 %); Guba (25 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.