How long did the Akobo fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 January 2022 and 22 February 2022: 30 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 63,860 hectares (638.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ulang (34,339 ha, 7.1 %); Akobo (29,945 ha, 3.3 %); Nyirol (14 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 40.3 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 84, class Very 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.

SS · South Sudan · 2022-01-24 → 2022-02-22

Akobo fire, 24 January 2022 Ulang, Akobo, Nyirol

Out · last detection 23 Feb 2022, 22:52 UTC

The fire started on 24 January 2022 in Akobo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 63,860 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 4 in South Sudan in 2022, of 124.

Burnt area: 63,860ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 30days; 24 Jan 2022 – 22 Feb 2022
Municipalities hit: 3; counties
Started on: 24 Jan; 2022
Heat detections: 2,821; in a single hotspot: 175 MW
Danger at start: 60; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 21.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Feb 2022

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jan22 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

2425262728293031124567891011121314151617181920212223

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

55km/h · peak gust

6%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 14,517 ha in 2016, 21,419 ha in 2017, 26,108 ha in 2018, 11,837 ha in 2019, 2,301 ha in 2020, 128 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 46,944 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Ulang

34,339 ha reached on 4 Feb

7.1 %
Akobo where it started

29,945 ha reached on 24 Jan

3.3 %
Nyirol

14 ha reached on 31 Jan

0.0 %

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)
24 Jan	37.6 °C	12 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
25 Jan	38.5 °C	13 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
26 Jan	38.2 °C	16 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 67
27 Jan	36.6 °C	18 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 70
28 Jan	35.5 °C	18 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 64
29 Jan	35.7 °C	18 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
30 Jan	36.0 °C	17 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
31 Jan	37.3 °C	13 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
1 Feb	36.6 °C	10 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
2 Feb	37.7 °C	15 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
3 Feb	39.0 °C	12 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
4 Feb	39.7 °C	11 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 67
5 Feb	36.6 °C	11 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 74
6 Feb	35.3 °C	13 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 69
7 Feb	35.7 °C	12 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 64
8 Feb	37.6 °C	11 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 64
9 Feb	38.6 °C	12 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
10 Feb	38.8 °C	16 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 67
11 Feb	39.2 °C	12 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 70
12 Feb	38.9 °C	17 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 66
13 Feb	39.9 °C	15 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
14 Feb	39.5 °C	10 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
15 Feb	39.1 °C	12 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
16 Feb	39.9 °C	12 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 66
17 Feb	39.9 °C	10 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
18 Feb	40.3 °C	10 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
19 Feb	40.1 °C	6 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 79
20 Feb	38.3 °C	6 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 84
21 Feb	34.7 °C	9 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 66
22 Feb	37.8 °C	9 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 66
23 Feb after	39.2 °C	9 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 66
24 Feb after	40.6 °C	8 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 67
25 Feb after	39.9 °C	6 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 70
26 Feb after	39.4 °C	6 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
27 Feb after	40.5 °C	9 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 66
28 Feb after	40.9 °C	9 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 69
1 Mar after	39.5 °C	22 %	41 km/h	0.3 mm	Extreme 60
2 Mar after	40.5 °C	18 %	37 km/h	0.2 mm	Extreme 58
3 Mar after	40.0 °C	18 %	49 km/h	0.1 mm	Extreme 66
4 Mar after	40.1 °C	16 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 17 Jan 2022

After · 1 Mar 2022

Before After

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 · 2,821Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in South Sudan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Akobo fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 January 2022 and 22 February 2022: 30 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 63,860 hectares (638.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ulang (34,339 ha, 7.1 %); Akobo (29,945 ha, 3.3 %); Nyirol (14 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 40.3 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 84, class Very 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned