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Pochalla fire, 21 December 2017 Pochalla, Pibor

Out · last detection 28 Dec 2017, 11:18 UTC

The fire started on 21 December 2017 in Pochalla, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,250 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 137th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 64 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
9,250ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
21 Dec 2017 – 27 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
21 Dec
2017
Heat detections
222
in a single hotspot: 162 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Dec27 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

2122232425262728

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
45km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,994 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Pochalla where it started
    8,632 ha reached on 21 Dec
    1.0 %
  2. Pibor
    670 ha reached on 21 Dec
    0.0 %

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)
21 Dec 37.8 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Dec 37.5 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Dec 37.4 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Dec 37.4 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Dec 37.5 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Dec 37.5 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Dec 37.1 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Dec after 37.3 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Dec after 37.1 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Dec after 37.2 °C 18 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Dec after 37.2 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Jan after 36.7 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Jan after 35.2 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Jan after 35.6 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Jan after 36.2 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Jan after 36.3 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Jan after 35.5 °C 15 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Dec 2017
After · 3 Jan 2018

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 · 222Every 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 Pochalla fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 December 2017 and 27 December 2017: 7 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 9,250 hectares (92.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pochalla (8,632 ha, 1.0 %); Pibor (670 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very 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.