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SS · South Sudan · →

Ibba fire, 21 December 2017 Ibba

Out · last detection 25 Dec 2017, 10:34 UTC

The fire started on 21 December 2017 in Ibba, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,438 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 323th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 173 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
5,438ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
21 Dec 2017 – 24 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
21 Dec
2017
Heat detections
202
in a single hotspot: 43 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Dec24 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

2122232425

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
39km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

8% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 419 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Ibba where it started
    5,476 ha reached on 15 Dec
    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)
21 Dec 37.6 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Dec 37.7 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Dec 37.6 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Dec 36.6 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Dec after 36.3 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Dec after 35.3 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Dec after 35.0 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Dec after 36.4 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Dec after 36.4 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Dec after 36.4 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Dec after 36.2 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Jan after 33.8 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Jan after 32.4 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Jan after 33.7 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Dec 2017
After · 31 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 · 202Every 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 21 December 2017 and 24 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 5,438 hectares (54.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ibba (5,476 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.