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Akobo fire, 6 February 2019 Akobo

Out · last detection 13 Feb 2019, 10:53 UTC

The fire started on 6 February 2019 in Akobo, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,159 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 281th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 98 in Ethiopia in 2019, of 220.

Burnt area
3,159ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
6 Feb 2019 – 13 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
6 Feb
2019
Heat detections
90
in a single hotspot: 191 MW
Danger at start
64
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Feb 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Feb13 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

67810111213

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
46km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

46% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3 ha in 2016, 1,283 ha in 2017, 622 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,441 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Akobo where it started
    3,180 ha reached on 6 Feb
    1.5 %

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)
6 Feb 39.8 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
7 Feb 41.1 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
8 Feb 39.9 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
9 Feb 39.2 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Feb 38.8 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Feb 37.8 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
12 Feb 38.8 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Feb 38.6 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Feb after 38.4 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
15 Feb after 40.3 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Feb after 38.9 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
17 Feb after 39.4 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
18 Feb after 38.0 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Feb after 38.5 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
20 Feb after 39.5 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
21 Feb after 33.2 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 43
22 Feb after 37.7 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Feb after 39.1 °C 23 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jan 2019
After · 20 Feb 2019

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 · 90Every 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 6 February 2019 and 13 February 2019: 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 3,159 hectares (31.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Akobo (3,180 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.1 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.