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Rubkona fire, December 2016 Rubkona

Out · last detection 12 Dec 2016, 12:03 UTC

The fire started on 4 December 2016 in Rubkona, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,435 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 49th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 160 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
6,435ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
4 Dec 2016 – 12 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
4 Dec
2016
Heat detections
166
in a single hotspot: 118 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Dec12 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

456789101112

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
42km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Rubkona where it started
    6,477 ha reached on 4 Dec
    1.8 %

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)
4 Dec 38.4 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
5 Dec 39.1 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Dec 40.1 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
7 Dec 39.3 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Dec 39.2 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
9 Dec 38.7 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Dec 39.0 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Dec 38.3 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Dec 38.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Dec after 38.8 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Dec after 37.2 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Dec after 37.5 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Dec after 36.4 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Dec after 36.8 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
18 Dec after 37.4 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Dec after 37.6 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 Dec after 38.3 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Dec after 38.5 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Dec after 38.6 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Nov 2016
After · 19 Dec 2016

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 · 166Every 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 Rubkona fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 December 2016 and 12 December 2016: 9 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 6,435 hectares (64.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Rubkona (6,477 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.