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Koch fire, January 2017 Koch

Out · last detection 11 Feb 2017, 11:19 UTC

The fire started on 31 January 2017 in Koch, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,445 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 48th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 120 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
6,445ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
31 Jan 2017 – 11 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
31 Jan
2017
Heat detections
226
in a single hotspot: 149 MW
Danger at start
69
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Jan11 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

311234568911

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
49km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 115 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Koch where it started
    6,488 ha reached on 31 Jan
    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)
31 Jan 39.2 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
1 Feb 37.6 °C 6 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
2 Feb 35.3 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
3 Feb 35.8 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
4 Feb 38.6 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
5 Feb 39.7 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
6 Feb 39.4 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
7 Feb 40.4 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
8 Feb 41.2 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
9 Feb 40.8 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
10 Feb 41.8 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
11 Feb 40.8 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
12 Feb after 41.5 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
13 Feb after 38.8 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
14 Feb after 34.4 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
15 Feb after 38.3 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
16 Feb after 38.1 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
17 Feb after 35.0 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
18 Feb after 35.0 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
19 Feb after 36.9 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
20 Feb after 38.9 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
21 Feb after 37.2 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Jan 2017
After · 18 Feb 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 · 226Every 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 31 January 2017 and 11 February 2017: 12 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 6,445 hectares (64.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Koch (6,488 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 76, class Very 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.