Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Koch fire, March 2016 Koch

Out · last detection 25 Mar 2016, 12:16 UTC

The fire started on 19 March 2016 in Koch, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,830 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 42th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 144 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
6,830ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
19 Mar 2016 – 25 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
19 Mar
2016
Heat detections
251
in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start
66
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Mar25 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

43°high
44km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 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. Koch where it started
    6,872 ha reached on 19 Mar
    1.6 %

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)
19 Mar 42.5 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
20 Mar 42.8 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Mar 43.1 °C 5 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
22 Mar 40.7 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Mar 41.8 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Mar 42.7 °C 4 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
25 Mar 41.2 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
26 Mar after 39.2 °C 23 % 56 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 69
27 Mar after 42.9 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Mar after 42.6 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Mar after 41.2 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Mar after 40.8 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 46
31 Mar after 42.2 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
1 Apr after 40.3 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
2 Apr after 39.3 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Apr after 40.0 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Apr after 40.0 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Mar 2016
After · 1 Apr 2016

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 · 251Every 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 Koch fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 March 2016 and 25 March 2016: 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 6,830 hectares (68.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Koch (6,872 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 43.1 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, 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.

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.