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SS · South Sudan · →

Ezo fire, 24 December 2017 Ezo

Out · last detection 28 Dec 2017, 11:18 UTC

The fire started on 24 December 2017 in Ezo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,455 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 321th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 171 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
5,455ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
24 Dec 2017 – 27 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
24 Dec
2017
Heat detections
159
in a single hotspot: 85 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Dec27 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

2425262728

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
33km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,385 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,041 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ezo where it started
    5,489 ha reached on 24 Dec
    0.7 %

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 Dec 36.2 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Dec 35.8 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Dec 35.4 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Dec 35.4 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Dec after 36.7 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Dec after 37.8 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Dec after 36.1 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Dec after 36.4 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Jan after 33.8 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Jan after 32.8 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Jan after 33.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Jan after 33.8 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jan after 33.3 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Jan after 33.6 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Dec 2017
After · 3 Jan 2018

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 · 159Every 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 Ezo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 December 2017 and 27 December 2017: 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 5,455 hectares (54.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ezo (5,489 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
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.