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Akobo fire, 18 January 2017 Akobo

Out · last detection 25 Jan 2017, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 18 January 2017 in Akobo, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,855 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 193th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 87 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
3,855ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
18 Jan 2017 – 25 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Jan
2017
Heat detections
118
in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jan25 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

18192022232425

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
34km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 997 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Akobo where it started
    3,881 ha reached on 15 Jan
    1.8 %

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)
18 Jan 39.4 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Jan 40.0 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Jan 39.3 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Jan 39.9 °C 11 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Jan 40.1 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Jan 40.4 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Jan 40.1 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Jan 39.9 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Jan after 39.3 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
27 Jan after 40.6 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Jan after 40.8 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
29 Jan after 39.8 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Jan after 39.1 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
31 Jan after 40.3 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
1 Feb after 39.5 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
2 Feb after 38.1 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
3 Feb after 38.3 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
4 Feb after 38.8 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Jan 2017
After · 1 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 · 118Every 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 18 January 2017 and 25 January 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 3,855 hectares (38.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Akobo (3,881 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.