Koch fire, 28 February 2024 Koch
The fire started on 28 February 2024 in Koch, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,948 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 20th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 68 in South Sudan in 2024, of 180.
- Burnt area
- 8,948ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 28 Feb 2024 – 18 Mar 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 28 Feb
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 642
- in a single hotspot: 105 MW
- Danger at start
- 63
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.0GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,160 ha in 2016, 4,080 ha in 2017, 744 ha in 2018, 1,039 ha in 2019, 4,649 ha in 2020, 903 ha in 2021, 688 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,553 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Koch where it started9,008 ha reached on 21 Feb2.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Feb | 41.3 °C | 6 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 29 Feb | 40.8 °C | 5 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 1 Mar | 42.0 °C | 4 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 2 Mar | 42.2 °C | 9 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 3 Mar | 42.7 °C | 5 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 4 Mar | 42.0 °C | 5 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 5 Mar | 41.8 °C | 4 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 6 Mar | 41.2 °C | 6 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 7 Mar | 40.2 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 8 Mar | 41.3 °C | 4 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 9 Mar | 42.3 °C | 5 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 10 Mar | 42.0 °C | 5 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 11 Mar | 43.8 °C | 8 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 12 Mar | 42.5 °C | 14 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 13 Mar | 43.7 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 14 Mar | 43.2 °C | 14 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 79 |
| 15 Mar | 41.6 °C | 19 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 16 Mar | 41.2 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 17 Mar | 42.5 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 18 Mar | 43.4 °C | 12 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 19 Mar after | 40.7 °C | 16 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 20 Mar after | 41.0 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 21 Mar after | 41.4 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 22 Mar after | 42.3 °C | 8 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 23 Mar after | 41.9 °C | 5 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 24 Mar after | 42.6 °C | 6 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 25 Mar after | 41.6 °C | 5 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 26 Mar after | 41.6 °C | 5 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 27 Mar after | 41.8 °C | 6 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 28 Mar after | 41.3 °C | 12 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 19 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 88 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 60: 4.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 642Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Koch fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 February 2024 and 18 March 2024: 20 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 8,948 hectares (89.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Koch (9,008 ha, 2.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 43.8 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 79, 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.
Report an error
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.