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Koch fire, 28 December 2018 Koch

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2019, 12:15 UTC

The fire started on 28 December 2018 in Koch, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,962 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 9th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 16 in South Sudan in 2018, of 120.

Burnt area
14,962ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
28 Dec 2018 – 12 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
28 Dec
2018
Heat detections
436
in a single hotspot: 69 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jan 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Dec12 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2829303112345678910111213

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
45km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

75% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9,554 ha in 2016, 6,674 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,168 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Koch where it started
    15,056 ha reached on 23 Dec
    3.4 %

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)
28 Dec 37.0 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Dec 37.5 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Dec 35.8 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Dec 36.2 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Jan 37.2 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Jan 38.3 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Jan 37.3 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
4 Jan 38.2 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Jan 38.2 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Jan 38.2 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Jan 36.8 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
8 Jan 36.5 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Jan 36.2 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Jan 37.9 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Jan 38.3 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
12 Jan 39.6 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Jan after 39.3 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
14 Jan after 39.0 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Jan after 38.9 °C 12 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Jan after 39.6 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Jan after 38.0 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Jan after 37.8 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Jan after 38.3 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Jan after 38.8 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Jan after 40.0 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
22 Jan after 40.3 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Dec 2018
After · 19 Jan 2019

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 · 436Every 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 28 December 2018 and 12 January 2019: 16 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 14,962 hectares (149.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Koch (15,056 ha, 3.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.