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Ayod fire, November 2017 Ayod

Out · last detection 15 Dec 2017, 12:03 UTC

The fire started on 23 November 2017 in Ayod, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,520 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 202th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 90 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
7,520ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
23 Nov 2017 – 14 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
23 Nov
2017
Heat detections
397
in a single hotspot: 51 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Nov14 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

23242526272812345678101112131415

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

39°high
45km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,962 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Ayod where it started
    7,575 ha reached on 21 Nov
    0.6 %

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)
23 Nov 36.4 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Nov 36.2 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Nov 36.3 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Nov 36.8 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Nov 36.7 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Nov 36.9 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Nov 37.1 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Nov 38.2 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Dec 37.3 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Dec 37.2 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Dec 37.7 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Dec 38.8 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Dec 38.9 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Dec 38.6 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Dec 38.1 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Dec 37.9 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Dec 38.2 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Dec 38.7 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Dec 39.2 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Dec 38.8 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Dec 38.5 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Dec 38.2 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Dec after 38.4 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Dec after 38.2 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
17 Dec after 38.5 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Dec after 38.4 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Dec after 38.6 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Dec after 39.0 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Dec after 39.4 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Dec after 38.9 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Dec after 38.9 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Dec after 39.2 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Nov 2017
After · 21 Dec 2017

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 · 397Every 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 Ayod fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 November 2017 and 14 December 2017: 22 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 7,520 hectares (75.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ayod (7,575 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 45 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.