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Akobo fire, 17 December 2018 Akobo

Out · last detection 21 Dec 2018, 11:06 UTC

The fire started on 17 December 2018 in Akobo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,525 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 80th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 23 in South Sudan in 2018, of 120.

Burnt area
12,525ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
17 Dec 2018 – 20 Dec 2018
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
17 Dec
2018
Heat detections
352
in a single hotspot: 276 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
10.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Dec 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Dec20 Dec

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

38°high
42km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,256 ha in 2016, 352 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,256 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Akobo where it started
    12,605 ha reached on 17 Dec
    1.4 %

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 Dec 38.3 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Dec 37.5 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Dec 37.4 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Dec 37.5 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Dec after 36.7 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Dec after 36.7 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Dec after 36.9 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Dec after 36.7 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Dec after 36.9 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Dec after 36.4 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Dec after 37.1 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Dec after 36.8 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Dec after 36.8 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Dec after 35.3 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Dec 2018
After · 27 Dec 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 · 352Every 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 December 2018 and 20 December 2018: 4 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 12,525 hectares (125.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Akobo (12,605 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.