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Melut fire, 22 November 2017 Melut

Out · last detection 29 Nov 2017, 22:58 UTC

The fire started on 22 November 2017 in Melut, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,518 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 232th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 166 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
5,518ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
22 Nov 2017 – 29 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
22 Nov
2017
Heat detections
175
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Nov29 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526272829

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
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,080 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Melut where it started
    5,556 ha reached on 18 Nov
    0.8 %

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)
22 Nov 36.3 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
23 Nov 35.8 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Nov 36.2 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Nov 37.5 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Nov 37.2 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Nov 37.1 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Nov 37.1 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Nov 38.2 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Nov after 38.5 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Dec after 36.9 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
2 Dec after 37.5 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Dec after 37.9 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Dec after 38.9 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Dec after 39.0 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Dec after 39.2 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Dec after 38.2 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
8 Dec after 37.3 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
9 Dec after 38.4 °C 16 % 39 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.

Before · 15 Nov 2017
After · 6 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 · 175Every 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 22 November 2017 and 29 November 2017: 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 5,518 hectares (55.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Melut (5,556 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 44 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.