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Akobo fire, January 2023 Akobo, Ulang

Out · last detection 19 Jan 2023, 10:30 UTC

The fire started on 6 January 2023 in Akobo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,328 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 75th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 19 in South Sudan in 2023, of 106.

Burnt area
13,328ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
6 Jan 2023 – 18 Jan 2023
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
6 Jan
2023
Heat detections
440
in a single hotspot: 198 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
6.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jan 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Jan18 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112131415171819

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
43km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

39% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,218 ha in 2016, 541 ha in 2017, 259 ha in 2018, 3,132 ha in 2021, 889 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,214 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Akobo where it started
    11,061 ha reached on 6 Jan
    1.2 %
  2. Ulang
    2,354 ha reached on 17 Jan
    0.5 %

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 Jan 35.6 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Jan 35.9 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Jan 35.8 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Jan 37.5 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Jan 35.8 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Jan 34.7 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Jan 34.1 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Jan 34.7 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 Jan 35.3 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Jan 36.2 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Jan 31.9 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Jan 36.6 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Jan 37.1 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Jan after 37.9 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Jan after 38.5 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
21 Jan after 39.0 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Jan after 36.3 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Jan after 37.8 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Jan after 37.5 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Jan after 38.2 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Jan after 39.6 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Jan after 38.0 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Jan after 38.4 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Dec 2022
After · 25 Jan 2023

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 · 440Every 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 6 January 2023 and 18 January 2023: 13 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 13,328 hectares (133.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Akobo (11,061 ha, 1.2 %); Ulang (2,354 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.