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Duk fire, 6 January 2017 Duk

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2017, 22:59 UTC

The fire started on 6 January 2017 in Duk, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,848 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 187th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 84 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
7,848ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
6 Jan 2017 – 12 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
6 Jan
2017
Heat detections
355
in a single hotspot: 89 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Jan12 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

678910111213

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
43km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Duk where it started
    7,896 ha reached on 6 Jan
    1.1 %

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 37.3 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Jan 38.3 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Jan 38.6 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
9 Jan 37.9 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Jan 37.4 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Jan 38.0 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Jan 38.3 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Jan after 38.5 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Jan after 39.9 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Jan after 40.0 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Jan after 39.5 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Jan after 39.0 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Jan after 39.3 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jan after 39.3 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Jan after 39.4 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
21 Jan after 38.8 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Jan after 39.8 °C 15 % 33 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.

Before · 30 Dec 2016
After · 19 Jan 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 · 355Every 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 Duk fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 January 2017 and 12 January 2017: 7 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 7,848 hectares (78.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Duk (7,896 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 43 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.

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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.