Surma fire, 26 December 2020 Surma
The fire started on 26 December 2020 in Surma, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,250 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 14th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 14 in Ethiopia in 2020, of 177.
- Burnt area
- 8,250ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 26 Dec 2020 – 29 Dec 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 26 Dec
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 210
- in a single hotspot: 39 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 1 Jan.
This area had burned before
75% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,236 ha in 2016, 646 ha in 2017, 257 ha in 2018, 3,742 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,167 ha that had burned before.
- 1,703 ha Surma fire, January 2019 3,187 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 446 ha Surma fire, January 2017 2,370 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 14 ha Surma fire, March 2016 2,164 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Surma where it started8,242 ha reached on 26 Dec1.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Dec | 30.8 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 27 Dec | 31.9 °C | 30 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 28 Dec | 31.9 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 29 Dec | 31.3 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 30 Dec after | 30.8 °C | 33 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 31 Dec after | 29.4 °C | 39 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 1 Jan after | 29.0 °C | 45 % | 39 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 14 |
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 · 210Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,241 haPiborDecember 2020 · 6 days · 18 km away
- 8,292 haPibor7 January 2026 · 15 days · 20 km away
- 7,244 haPibor7 February 2016 · 6 days · 26 km away
- 7,501 haPibor28 January 2021 · 5 days · 30 km away
- 11,107 haPibor12 January 2019 · 5 days · 36 km away
- 14,153 haPibor10 January 2026 · 9 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Surma fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 December 2020 and 29 December 2020: 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 8,250 hectares (82.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Surma (8,242 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, 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.
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 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.