Skip to content
worldfires
ET · Ethiopia · →

Wenbera fire, 22 November 2016 Wenbera

Out · last detection 29 Nov 2016, 11:07 UTC

The fire started on 22 November 2016 in Wenbera, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,976 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 332th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 150 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

The power measured by the satellite is low (16.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,976ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
22 Nov 2016 – 28 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Nov
2016
Heat detections
93
in a single hotspot: 17 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
486MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Nov28 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526272829

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
33km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 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. Wenbera where it started
    2,992 ha reached on 22 Nov
    0.4 %

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)
22 Nov 35.9 °C 20 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Nov 34.8 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Nov 33.9 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Nov 33.4 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Nov 33.6 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Nov 34.0 °C 22 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Nov 34.5 °C 10 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Nov after 34.8 °C 18 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Nov after 35.0 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Dec after 34.9 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Dec after 32.0 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Dec after 34.9 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Dec after 35.3 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Dec after 34.4 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Dec after 34.3 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Dec after 34.2 °C 13 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Dec after 34.5 °C 16 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Nov 2016
After · 5 Dec 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 · 93Every 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 Wenbera fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 November 2016 and 28 November 2016: 7 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 2,976 hectares (29.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Wenbera (2,992 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.