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Wemberma fire, January 2016 Wemberma, Kiremu, Yaso

Out · last detection 11 Jan 2016, 22:59 UTC

The fire started on 2 January 2016 in Wemberma, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,228 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Amhara since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 14 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

Burnt area
13,228ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
2 Jan 2016 – 11 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
2 Jan
2016
Heat detections
487
in a single hotspot: 75 MW
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Jan11 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

234567891011

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
35km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Wemberma where it started
    10,017 ha reached on 1 Jan
    7.4 %
  2. Kiremu
    3,225 ha reached on 3 Jan
    2.9 %
  3. Yaso
    68 ha reached on 1 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)
1 Jan 33.1 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
2 Jan 32.2 °C 30 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
3 Jan 32.6 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
4 Jan 34.4 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
5 Jan 34.0 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
6 Jan 33.0 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Jan 34.6 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
8 Jan 34.3 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
9 Jan 35.5 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Jan 33.6 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Jan 34.1 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Jan after 33.7 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Jan after 32.1 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Jan after 34.3 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Jan after 33.1 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Jan after 32.9 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Jan after 34.5 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Jan after 33.7 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Jan after 34.5 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jan after 34.5 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Jan after 35.2 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Jan after 34.3 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Jan after 34.8 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Jan after 34.0 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Jan after 35.3 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Jan after 35.0 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Jan after 34.7 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Jan after 33.8 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Dec 2015
After · 18 Jan 2016

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 · 487Every 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 Wemberma fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 January 2016 and 11 January 2016: 10 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 13,228 hectares (132.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Wemberma (10,017 ha, 7.4 %); Kiremu (3,225 ha, 2.9 %); Yaso (68 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 35 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.