Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Koch fire, 21 January 2018 Koch, Tonj North

Out · last detection 29 Jan 2018, 11:18 UTC

The fire started on 21 January 2018 in Koch, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,592 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 63th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 96 in South Sudan in 2018, of 120.

Burnt area
5,592ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
21 Jan 2018 – 29 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
21 Jan
2018
Heat detections
196
in a single hotspot: 160 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jan29 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526272829

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
44km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,554 ha in 2016, 1,560 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,747 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Koch where it started
    5,416 ha reached on 21 Jan
    1.2 %
  2. Tonj North
    210 ha reached on 22 Jan
    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)
21 Jan 38.2 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
22 Jan 38.3 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Jan 38.5 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
24 Jan 37.8 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
25 Jan 37.5 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
26 Jan 37.2 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
27 Jan 36.4 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
28 Jan 36.4 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
29 Jan 36.0 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
30 Jan after 35.9 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
31 Jan after 35.7 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
1 Feb after 37.4 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
2 Feb after 38.7 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
3 Feb after 39.0 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
4 Feb after 39.5 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
5 Feb after 39.8 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
6 Feb after 40.8 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
7 Feb after 42.0 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
8 Feb after 41.3 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Jan 2018
After · 5 Feb 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 · 196Every 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 21 January 2018 and 29 January 2018: 9 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 5,592 hectares (55.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Koch (5,416 ha, 1.2 %); Tonj North (210 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, 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.