Koch fire, 25 March 2024 Koch
The fire started on 25 March 2024 in Koch, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,647 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 44th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 107 in South Sudan in 2024, of 180.
- Burnt area
- 6,647ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 25 Mar 2024 – 1 Apr 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 25 Mar
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 261
- in a single hotspot: 161 MW
- Danger at start
- 66
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.5GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 2 Apr.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,128 ha in 2016, 4,056 ha in 2017, 6,122 ha in 2018, 4,103 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,514 ha that had burned before.
- 3,868 ha Koch fire, December 2018 14,962 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 186 ha Koch fire, January 2018 6,904 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3 ha Koch fire, December 2017 7,118 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Koch where it started6,689 ha reached on 23 Mar1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Mar | 41.7 °C | 6 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 26 Mar | 41.6 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 27 Mar | 41.8 °C | 6 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 28 Mar | 41.4 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 29 Mar | 42.8 °C | 13 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 30 Mar | 42.2 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 31 Mar | 41.0 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 1 Apr | 38.0 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 2 Apr after | 38.4 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 1.0 mm | Very high 43 |
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 28 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 118 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 39: 2.6 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 · 261Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,962 haKoch28 December 2018 · 16 days · 4 km away
- 8,948 haKoch28 February 2024 · 20 days · 19 km away
- 10,377 haMayomDecember 2019 · 19 days · 26 km away
- 7,426 haKoch21 March 2024 · 8 days · 32 km away
- 7,846 haTonj North5 January 2016 · 7 days · 36 km away
- 7,488 haKoch25 January 2018 · 6 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Koch fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 March 2024 and 1 April 2024: 8 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 6,647 hectares (66.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Koch (6,689 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 42.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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
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.