Skip to content
worldfires
ET · Ethiopia · →

Akobo fire, 30 January 2017 Akobo, Jore

Out · last detection 6 Feb 2017, 11:12 UTC

The fire started on 30 January 2017 in Akobo, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,406 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 56th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 13 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
9,406ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
30 Jan 2017 – 6 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
30 Jan
2017
Heat detections
457
in a single hotspot: 287 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jan6 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

30123456

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
44km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 20 Feb.

This area had burned before

14% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,323 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Akobo where it started
    8,411 ha reached on 29 Jan
    3.9 %
  2. Jore
    1,057 ha reached on 29 Jan
    0.3 %

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)
29 Jan 39.9 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
30 Jan 39.0 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Jan 40.0 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Feb 39.6 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
2 Feb 38.2 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
3 Feb 38.2 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
4 Feb 38.7 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
5 Feb 39.5 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Feb 39.6 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Feb after 39.3 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Feb after 40.5 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Feb after 39.6 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Feb after 41.3 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Feb after 40.6 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
12 Feb after 40.5 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Feb after 39.8 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Feb after 35.1 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Feb after 38.2 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 54
16 Feb after 39.2 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Feb after 37.2 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Feb after 35.2 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
19 Feb after 37.3 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Feb after 39.0 °C 20 % 29 km/h 1.1 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jan 2017
After · 13 Feb 2017

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 · 457Every 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 Akobo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 January 2017 and 6 February 2017: 8 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 9,406 hectares (94.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Akobo (8,411 ha, 3.9 %); Jore (1,057 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.3 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, class Extreme.
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.