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Koch fire, December 2016 Koch

Out · last detection 15 Dec 2016, 11:07 UTC

The fire started on 10 December 2016 in Koch, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,198 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 77th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 231 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
5,198ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
10 Dec 2016 – 15 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
10 Dec
2016
Heat detections
138
in a single hotspot: 160 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Dec15 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
37km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 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
    5,233 ha reached on 10 Dec
    1.2 %

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)
10 Dec 38.8 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
11 Dec 38.3 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Dec 38.6 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Dec 38.7 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Dec 37.0 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Dec 37.5 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Dec after 36.4 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Dec after 37.0 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Dec after 37.5 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Dec after 37.5 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Dec after 38.2 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Dec after 38.2 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Dec after 38.5 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Dec after 38.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Dec after 39.3 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Dec after 38.2 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Dec 2016
After · 22 Dec 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 · 138Every 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 10 December 2016 and 15 December 2016: 6 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 5,198 hectares (52.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Koch (5,233 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.