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Pochalla fire, 3 January 2019 Pochalla

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2019, 10:34 UTC

The fire started on 3 January 2019 in Pochalla, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,355 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 269th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 107 in South Sudan in 2019, of 150.

Burnt area
6,355ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
3 Jan 2019 – 13 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
3 Jan
2019
Heat detections
281
in a single hotspot: 191 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jan 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Jan13 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

345678910111213

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

39°high
38km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,460 ha in 2016, 2,548 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,086 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pochalla where it started
    6,397 ha reached on 27 Dec
    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)
3 Jan 37.0 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Jan 37.5 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Jan 37.7 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
6 Jan 38.5 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Jan 38.7 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Jan 38.3 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Jan 38.5 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Jan 38.7 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Jan 38.2 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Jan 39.2 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Jan 39.0 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Jan after 39.4 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Jan after 40.3 °C 11 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Jan after 39.7 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Jan after 39.7 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Jan after 40.2 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Jan after 39.0 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan after 39.5 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Jan after 40.0 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Jan after 40.0 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Jan after 39.8 °C 13 % 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 · 27 Dec 2018
After · 20 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 · 281Every 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 3 January 2019 and 13 January 2019: 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 6,355 hectares (63.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pochalla (6,397 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.