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Akobo fire, 17 January 2018 Akobo

Out · last detection 21 Jan 2018, 10:28 UTC

The fire started on 17 January 2018 in Akobo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,542 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 257th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 71 in South Sudan in 2018, of 120.

Burnt area
6,542ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
17 Jan 2018 – 21 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
17 Jan
2018
Heat detections
173
in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start
65
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jan21 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
46km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 47 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,647 ha in 2016, 93 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Akobo where it started
    6,581 ha reached on 14 Jan
    0.7 %

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)
17 Jan 38.4 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
18 Jan 38.4 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Jan 38.6 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
20 Jan 38.8 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
21 Jan 39.0 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
22 Jan after 38.6 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
23 Jan after 39.3 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
24 Jan after 38.5 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
25 Jan after 38.5 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
26 Jan after 38.9 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
27 Jan after 37.6 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
28 Jan after 38.4 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
29 Jan after 38.1 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
30 Jan after 37.5 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
31 Jan after 37.6 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Jan 2018
After · 28 Jan 2018

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 · 173Every 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 South Sudan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Akobo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 January 2018 and 21 January 2018: 5 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 6,542 hectares (65.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Akobo (6,581 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of South Sudan (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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.