Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Ibba fire, 14 December 2017 Ibba, Wulu, Maridi

Out · last detection 10 Jan 2018, 12:14 UTC

The fire started on 14 December 2017 in Ibba, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 50,268 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 24th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 2 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
50,268ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
27days
14 Dec 2017 – 9 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
14 Dec
2017
Heat detections
1,684
in a single hotspot: 182 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
15.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Dec9 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
38km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 20,718 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 17,117 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ibba where it started
    44,878 ha reached on 14 Dec
    4.6 %
  2. Wulu
    5,739 ha reached on 14 Dec
    0.5 %
  3. Maridi
    17 ha reached on 17 Dec
    0.0 %

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)
14 Dec 37.2 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Dec 36.2 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Dec 35.2 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Dec 36.4 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Dec 36.2 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Dec 35.5 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Dec 36.1 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Dec 37.5 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Dec 37.5 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Dec 37.3 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Dec 36.7 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Dec 36.0 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Dec 35.0 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Dec 34.9 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Dec 36.1 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Dec 36.5 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Dec 36.5 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Dec 36.2 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Jan 33.8 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Jan 32.3 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Jan 33.7 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Jan 33.9 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Jan 33.0 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Jan 32.8 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Jan 34.5 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Jan 34.1 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Jan 34.0 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Jan after 35.2 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Jan after 36.1 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Jan after 36.4 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Jan after 37.7 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Jan after 37.0 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Jan after 35.1 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Jan after 35.2 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Jan after 35.4 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Jan after 35.8 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jan after 36.4 °C 12 % 30 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 · 7 Dec 2017
After · 16 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 · 1,684Every 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 Ibba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 December 2017 and 9 January 2018: 27 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 50,268 hectares (502.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ibba (44,878 ha, 4.6 %); Wulu (5,739 ha, 0.5 %); Maridi (17 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.