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Melut fire, 20 November 2017 Melut

Out · last detection 1 Dec 2017, 11:26 UTC

The fire started on 20 November 2017 in Melut, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,078 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 119th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 81 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
8,078ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
20 Nov 2017 – 30 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
20 Nov
2017
Heat detections
338
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Nov30 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

202122232425262728301

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
43km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 107 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Melut where it started
    8,124 ha reached on 20 Nov
    1.2 %

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)
20 Nov 39.8 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Nov 38.1 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Nov 36.8 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
23 Nov 36.4 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Nov 36.8 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Nov 37.9 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Nov 37.6 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Nov 37.3 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Nov 37.4 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Nov 38.6 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Nov 38.9 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Dec after 37.4 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Dec after 37.7 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Dec after 38.3 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Dec after 39.2 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Dec after 39.2 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
6 Dec after 39.3 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Dec after 38.7 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
8 Dec after 37.9 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
9 Dec after 38.8 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Dec after 38.7 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Nov 2017
After · 7 Dec 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 · 338Every 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 Melut fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 November 2017 and 30 November 2017: 11 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 8,078 hectares (80.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Melut (8,124 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.