Surma fire, October 2026 Surma
The fire started on 4 October 2026 in Surma, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,641 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 21th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 24 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 5,641ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 4 Oct 2026 – 9 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 4 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 74
- in a single hotspot: 207 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.7GW
- 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: 1.5 mm on 10 Oct.
This area had burned before
61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,030 ha in 2016, 1,800 ha in 2019, 741 ha in 2021, 491 ha in 2023, 300 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,428 ha that had burned before.
- 1,358 ha Surma fire, January 2019 2,147 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 741 ha Surma fire, December 2021 2,264 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 255 ha Surma fire, January 2019 4,045 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 36 ha Surma fire, March 2016 3,136 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Surma where it started5,681 ha reached on 4 Oct1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Oct | 31.6 °C | 32 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Oct | 31.1 °C | 37 % | 44 km/h | 1.2 mm | High 24 |
| 6 Oct | 27.7 °C | 50 % | 39 km/h | 1.6 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 7 Oct | 30.2 °C | 41 % | 41 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 8 Oct | 30.9 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 2.6 mm | Low 11 |
| 9 Oct | 29.0 °C | 43 % | 42 km/h | 2.1 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 10 Oct after | 30.2 °C | 45 % | 42 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 13 |
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 2 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 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 · 74Every 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 4 October 2026 and 9 October 2026: 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 5,641 hectares (56.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Surma (5,681 ha, 1.2 %).
- Is the Surma fire still active?
- No fire detections since 8 Oct 2026, 11:17 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.