Pochalla fire, February 2026 Pochalla, Akobo
The fire started on 7 February 2026 in Pochalla, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 37 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 73,282 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 428 with a page). Number 3 in South Sudan in 2026, of 191.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 73,282ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 37days
- 7 Feb 2026 – 15 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 7 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 3,408
- in a single hotspot: 0 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 954MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 18 Mar.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 29,730 ha in 2016, 12,047 ha in 2017, 23,276 ha in 2018, 9,735 ha in 2019, 9,504 ha in 2020, 30,156 ha in 2021, 23,171 ha in 2022, 18,926 ha in 2023, 19,422 ha in 2024, 15,656 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 66,934 ha that had burned before.
- 14,305 ha Pochalla fire, March 2024 23,872 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,752 ha Pochalla fire, February 2023 7,546 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,830 ha Pochalla fire, January 2025 8,758 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,602 ha Pochalla fire, February 2021 5,292 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,142 ha Pochalla fire, January 2019 6,355 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,083 ha Pochalla fire, December 2018 12,063 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,441 ha Pochalla fire, December 2016 5,335 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,374 ha Pochalla fire, March 2021 6,550 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Pochalla where it started65,234 ha7.8 %
-
8,521 ha0.9 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Feb | 37.7 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 8 Feb | 38.5 °C | 12 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 9 Feb | 37.2 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Feb | 35.1 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 11 Feb | 37.4 °C | 24 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Feb | 36.8 °C | 23 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 13 Feb | 39.5 °C | 15 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 14 Feb | 37.9 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 15 Feb | 38.4 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 16 Feb | 37.7 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Feb | 39.3 °C | 24 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 18 Feb | 38.5 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 49 |
| 19 Feb | 34.9 °C | 34 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 37 |
| 20 Feb | 37.1 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 21 Feb | 38.6 °C | 17 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Feb | 37.6 °C | 15 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Feb | 37.4 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 24 Feb | 36.8 °C | 11 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Feb | 37.0 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 26 Feb | 36.8 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 27 Feb | 37.2 °C | 14 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 28 Feb | 37.3 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 1 Mar | 35.7 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 2 Mar | 36.5 °C | 12 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 3 Mar | 36.5 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 4 Mar | 36.9 °C | 7 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 5 Mar | 36.3 °C | 8 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 6 Mar | 36.7 °C | 15 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 7 Mar | 38.1 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 8 Mar | 38.6 °C | 16 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 9 Mar | 39.0 °C | 12 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 10 Mar | 37.3 °C | 24 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Mar | 36.9 °C | 31 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 12 Mar | 38.9 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Mar | 38.7 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 14 Mar | 39.4 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 15 Mar | 38.4 °C | 26 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 16 Mar after | 38.9 °C | 24 % | 50 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 17 Mar after | 37.1 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 45 |
| 18 Mar after | 31.9 °C | 42 % | 22 km/h | 2.7 mm | Low 10 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 23 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 122 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 72: 4.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 0Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 23,872 haPochallaMarch 2024 · 16 days · 14 km away
- 12,063 haPochalla23 December 2018 · 24 days · 27 km away
- 11,770 haPochalla30 January 2021 · 8 days · 31 km away
- 17,097 haPochalla20 December 2018 · 8 days · 35 km away
- 9,178 haPochalla6 February 2021 · 10 days · 36 km away
- 21,905 haPochalla27 December 2016 · 18 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Pochalla fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 February 2026 and 15 March 2026: 37 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 73,282 hectares (732.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pochalla (65,234 ha, 7.8 %); Akobo (8,521 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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
History of this page · 4 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 16 March 2026 → 15 March 2026.
- Start date: 31 January 2026 → 7 February 2026.
- Last day with fire: 15 March 2026 → 16 March 2026.
- Start date: 7 February 2026 → 31 January 2026.
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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.