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Mvolo fire, 6 December 2017 Mvolo, Mundri West

Out · last detection 12 Dec 2017, 11:18 UTC

The fire started on 6 December 2017 in Mvolo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,152 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 151th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 68 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
9,152ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
6 Dec 2017 – 11 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
6 Dec
2017
Heat detections
246
in a single hotspot: 217 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Dec11 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112

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
36km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

32% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,067 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,901 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mvolo where it started
    6,504 ha reached on 6 Dec
    1.1 %
  2. Mundri West
    2,708 ha reached on 6 Dec
    0.5 %

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)
6 Dec 37.7 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Dec 37.0 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Dec 36.2 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Dec 36.2 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Dec 36.2 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Dec 37.0 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Dec after 37.3 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Dec after 36.9 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Dec after 37.6 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Dec after 37.7 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Dec after 35.7 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Dec after 37.0 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Dec after 37.2 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Dec after 35.7 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Dec after 36.6 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Dec after 37.9 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Nov 2017
After · 18 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 · 246Every 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 Mvolo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 December 2017 and 11 December 2017: 6 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 9,152 hectares (91.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mvolo (6,504 ha, 1.1 %); Mundri West (2,708 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
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.