Akobo fire, 24 February 2026 Akobo
The fire started on 24 February 2026 in Akobo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,199 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 173th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 68 in South Sudan in 2026, of 182.
- Burnt area
- 8,199ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 24 Feb 2026 – 27 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 24 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 219
- in a single hotspot: 171 MW
- Danger at start
- 57
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.1GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,183 ha in 2017, 921 ha in 2018, 767 ha in 2019, 801 ha in 2020, 5,137 ha in 2021, 949 ha in 2022, 972 ha in 2023, 240 ha in 2024, 3,759 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,417 ha that had burned before.
- 4,375 ha Akobo fire, February 2021 11,004 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,084 ha Pochalla fire, February 2025 21,850 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,439 ha Akobo fire, February 2025 16,104 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 417 ha Akobo fire, January 2022 12,379 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 262 ha Akobo fire, December 2018 10,336 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 133 ha Akobo fire, December 2018 7,667 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 109 ha Akobo fire, December 2017 9,001 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Akobo fire, February 2022 6,032 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Akobo where it started8,095 ha reached on 23 Feb0.9 %
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 Feb | 36.6 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 25 Feb | 36.7 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 26 Feb | 36.8 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 27 Feb | 37.3 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 28 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 1 Mar after | 35.9 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 2 Mar after | 36.2 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 3 Mar after | 36.2 °C | 9 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 4 Mar after | 36.3 °C | 8 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 5 Mar after | 36.3 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 6 Mar after | 36.6 °C | 9 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 7 Mar after | 37.8 °C | 14 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 8 Mar after | 39.2 °C | 9 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 9 Mar after | 38.8 °C | 8 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 23 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 72 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 47: 3.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 219Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Akobo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 February 2026 and 27 February 2026: 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 8,199 hectares (82.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Akobo (8,095 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.
Report an error
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.