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Surma fire, 1 February 2019 Surma, Maji

Out · last detection 7 Feb 2019, 11:05 UTC

The fire started on 1 February 2019 in Surma, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,152 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 34th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 58 in Ethiopia in 2019, of 220.

Burnt area
4,152ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
1 Feb 2019 – 7 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
1 Feb
2019
Heat detections
125
in a single hotspot: 33 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Feb 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Feb7 Feb

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

35°high
36km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,532 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,164 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Surma where it started
    2,279 ha reached on 1 Feb
    0.5 %
  2. Maji
    1,903 ha reached on 2 Feb
    0.4 %

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 Feb 33.7 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Feb 33.6 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Feb 34.1 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Feb 34.7 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Feb 34.8 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Feb 33.6 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Feb 34.9 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Feb after 34.8 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Feb after 32.8 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Feb after 33.8 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Feb after 33.8 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Feb after 34.2 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Feb after 33.8 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Feb after 31.7 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Feb after 32.8 °C 29 % 19 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
16 Feb after 33.8 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
17 Feb after 34.0 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Jan 2019
After · 14 Feb 2019

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 · 125Every 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 Surma fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 February 2019 and 7 February 2019: 7 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 4,152 hectares (41.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Surma (2,279 ha, 0.5 %); Maji (1,903 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.