Skip to content
worldfires
ET · Ethiopia · →

Akobo fire, 12 January 2017 Akobo

Out · last detection 16 Jan 2017, 11:06 UTC

The fire started on 12 January 2017 in Akobo, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,810 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 73th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 26 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
7,810ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
12 Jan 2017 – 17 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Jan
2017
Heat detections
162
in a single hotspot: 76 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jan17 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

12141516

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
36km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 484 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Akobo where it started
    6,438 ha reached on 12 Jan
    3.0 %

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)
12 Jan 38.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Jan 39.5 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Jan 40.1 °C 9 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Jan 40.7 °C 9 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Jan 40.6 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
17 Jan 39.6 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Jan after 39.7 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Jan after 40.2 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Jan after 39.5 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Jan after 40.3 °C 9 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jan after 40.5 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
23 Jan after 40.8 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Jan after 40.4 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Jan after 40.1 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Jan after 39.5 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
27 Jan after 40.9 °C 15 % 31 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 · 5 Jan 2017
After · 24 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 · 162Every 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 12 January 2017 and 17 January 2017: 6 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 7,810 hectares (78.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Akobo (6,438 ha, 3.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.