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Akobo fire, 8 January 2017 Akobo

Out · last detection 15 Jan 2017, 11:25 UTC

The fire started on 8 January 2017 in Akobo, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,014 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 103th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 40 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
6,014ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
8 Jan 2017 – 14 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
8 Jan
2017
Heat detections
176
in a single hotspot: 100 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Jan14 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

891011131415

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
42km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 50 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 187 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Akobo where it started
    6,053 ha reached on 8 Jan
    2.8 %

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)
8 Jan 39.4 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Jan 39.2 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
10 Jan 38.3 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
11 Jan 38.6 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Jan 38.6 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Jan 39.1 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 Jan 39.8 °C 11 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
15 Jan after 40.6 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Jan after 40.0 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Jan after 39.2 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Jan after 39.4 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Jan after 40.0 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Jan after 39.3 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Jan after 39.9 °C 11 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Jan after 40.1 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Jan after 40.4 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Jan after 40.1 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Jan 2017
After · 21 Jan 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 · 176Every 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 8 January 2017 and 14 January 2017: 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 6,014 hectares (60.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Akobo (6,053 ha, 2.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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.

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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.