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Tocha fire, January 2019 Tocha, Ela (Konta) SP Woreda, Esira

Out · last detection 23 Jan 2019, 10:47 UTC

The fire started on 13 January 2019 in Tocha, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,295 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 61th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 90 in Ethiopia in 2019, of 220.

Burnt area
3,295ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
13 Jan 2019 – 23 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
13 Jan
2019
Heat detections
123
in a single hotspot: 142 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Jan 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jan23 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

1314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
23km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,459 ha in 2016, 1,108 ha in 2017, 228 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,249 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Tocha where it started
    2,453 ha reached on 9 Jan
    3.1 %
  2. Ela (Konta) SP Woreda
    860 ha reached on 11 Jan
    0.4 %
  3. Esira
    3 ha reached on 23 Jan
    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)
13 Jan 33.0 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Jan 33.6 °C 21 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Jan 33.4 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Jan 33.0 °C 30 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Jan 33.6 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Jan 33.3 °C 30 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Jan 31.3 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Jan 31.8 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
21 Jan 32.3 °C 33 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 Jan 32.3 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Jan 33.0 °C 31 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Jan after 31.8 °C 35 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
25 Jan after 34.1 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Jan after 33.8 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Jan after 34.2 °C 28 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Jan after 34.7 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Jan after 33.3 °C 33 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Jan after 33.3 °C 28 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Jan after 33.8 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Feb after 34.0 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Feb after 33.8 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Jan 2019
After · 30 Jan 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 · 123Every 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 Tocha fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 January 2019 and 23 January 2019: 11 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 3,295 hectares (33.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tocha (2,453 ha, 3.1 %); Ela (Konta) SP Woreda (860 ha, 0.4 %); Esira (3 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 23 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.