Akobo fire, 20 January 2022 Akobo
The fire started on 20 January 2022 in Akobo, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,630 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 27th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 4 in Ethiopia in 2022, of 135.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Akobo · 2017Akobo · 2018Akobo · 2017Akobo · 2021
- Burnt area
- 15,630ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 23days
- 20 Jan 2022 – 11 Feb 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 20 Jan
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 735
- in a single hotspot: 50 MW
- Danger at start
- 58
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 306MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,673 ha in 2016, 17,578 ha in 2017, 3,573 ha in 2018, 475 ha in 2019, 5,697 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,753 ha that had burned before.
- 6,887 ha Akobo fire, December 2017 11,622 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,464 ha Akobo fire, December 2018 5,537 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,364 ha Akobo fire, January 2017 6,014 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,928 ha Akobo fire, April 2021 2,379 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,792 ha Akobo fire, December 2016 2,293 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,522 ha Akobo fire, April 2021 8,858 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 585 ha Akobo fire, January 2016 2,561 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 289 ha Akobo fire, June 2021 2,184 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Akobo where it started15,730 ha reached on 20 Jan7.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there were about 0.06 hectares of built-up land and about 550 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Jan | 35.1 °C | 11 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 21 Jan | 36.8 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 22 Jan | 37.1 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 23 Jan | 36.8 °C | 13 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 24 Jan | 37.7 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 25 Jan | 38.7 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 26 Jan | 38.4 °C | 16 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 27 Jan | 37.5 °C | 18 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 28 Jan | 36.2 °C | 19 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 29 Jan | 36.6 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 30 Jan | 36.3 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 31 Jan | 37.6 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 1 Feb | 37.0 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 2 Feb | 37.8 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 3 Feb | 38.4 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 4 Feb | 39.5 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 5 Feb | 37.4 °C | 11 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 6 Feb | 36.0 °C | 13 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 7 Feb | 36.3 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 8 Feb | 37.7 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 9 Feb | 38.6 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 10 Feb | 39.1 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 11 Feb | 39.1 °C | 12 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 12 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 13 Feb after | 39.7 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 14 Feb after | 39.7 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 15 Feb after | 39.5 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 16 Feb after | 40.1 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 17 Feb after | 40.2 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 18 Feb after | 40.3 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 19 Feb after | 40.7 °C | 6 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 20 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 6 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 21 Feb after | 35.2 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
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.
Detections table · 735Every 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?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 January 2022 to 11 February 2022 (23 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 January 2022 to 6 February 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 15,630 hectares (156.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Akobo (15,730 ha, 7.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 6 February 2022 → 11 February 2022.
- Start date: 27 January 2022 → 20 January 2022.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 27 January 2022 to 6 February 2022. 735 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.