Surma fire, 8 January 2026 Surma
The fire started on 8 January 2026 in Surma, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,517 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 49th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 60 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 3,517ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 8 Jan 2026 – 16 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 57
- in a single hotspot: 34 MW
- Danger at start
- 15
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 669MW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 879 ha in 2016, 519 ha in 2017, 691 ha in 2019, 63 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,342 ha that had burned before.
- 793 ha Surma fire, March 2016 3,136 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 382 ha Surma fire, January 2019 4,045 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 309 ha Surma fire, January 2019 2,147 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 63 ha Surma fire, February 2023 2,217 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Surma where it started3,542 ha reached on 8 Jan0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Jan | 30.2 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 9 Jan | 30.9 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 10 Jan | 29.0 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 11 Jan | 30.3 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 12 Jan | 30.1 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 13 Jan | 29.9 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 14 Jan | 29.0 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 15 Jan | 30.0 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 16 Jan | 29.6 °C | 29 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 17 Jan after | 30.5 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 18 Jan after | 30.1 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 19 Jan after | 29.7 °C | 33 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 20 Jan after | 30.8 °C | 33 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 21 Jan after | 31.8 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Jan after | 30.8 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 23 Jan after | 31.2 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 24 Jan after | 31.5 °C | 23 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Jan after | 31.9 °C | 25 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 26 Jan after | 30.3 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 12 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 65 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 39: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 57Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Surma fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 January 2026 and 16 January 2026: 9 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 3,517 hectares (35.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Surma (3,542 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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.