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Pochalla fire, 21 December 2018 Pochalla, Pibor

Out · last detection 28 Dec 2018, 10:34 UTC

The fire started on 21 December 2018 in Pochalla, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,715 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 16th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 9 in South Sudan in 2018, of 120.

Burnt area
27,715ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
21 Dec 2018 – 27 Dec 2018
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
21 Dec
2018
Heat detections
682
in a single hotspot: 195 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
11.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Dec 2018
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
33km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 14,621 ha in 2016, 10,554 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 19,491 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pochalla where it started
    25,239 ha reached on 21 Dec
    3.0 %
  2. Pibor
    2,635 ha reached on 21 Dec
    0.1 %

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 35.8 °C 26 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Dec 36.9 °C 27 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Dec 37.1 °C 26 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Dec 36.2 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Dec 37.5 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Dec 37.4 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Dec 37.2 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Dec after 37.3 °C 27 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Dec after 37.0 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
30 Dec after 35.5 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
31 Dec after 34.4 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Jan after 35.4 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.4 mm High 31
2 Jan after 35.4 °C 34 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Jan after 35.9 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Jan after 37.4 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Jan after 36.9 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Jan after 38.2 °C 21 % 33 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 2018
After · 3 Jan 2019

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 · 682Every 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 2018 and 27 December 2018: 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 27,715 hectares (277.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pochalla (25,239 ha, 3.0 %); Pibor (2,635 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.