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Fashoda fire, December 2017 Fashoda

Out · last detection 16 Dec 2017, 11:44 UTC

The fire started on 3 December 2017 in Fashoda, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,303 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 259th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 185 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
5,303ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
3 Dec 2017 – 16 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
3 Dec
2017
Heat detections
155
in a single hotspot: 162 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Dec16 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

3467810111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
49km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 515 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Fashoda where it started
    5,334 ha reached on 3 Dec
    1.5 %

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)
3 Dec 37.9 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Dec 38.7 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Dec 38.9 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Dec 39.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Dec 38.2 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
8 Dec 37.4 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
9 Dec 38.4 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Dec 38.6 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Dec 39.5 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Dec 39.4 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Dec 38.7 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Dec 38.1 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Dec 37.9 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
16 Dec 37.9 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
17 Dec after 38.2 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
18 Dec after 38.6 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
19 Dec after 39.0 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Dec after 39.4 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Dec after 40.2 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Dec after 38.9 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Dec after 39.1 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Dec after 39.5 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
25 Dec after 37.3 °C 14 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
26 Dec after 37.2 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Nov 2017
After · 23 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 · 155Every 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 Fashoda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 December 2017 and 16 December 2017: 14 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 5,303 hectares (53.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Fashoda (5,334 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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.