Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Torit fire, February 2017 Torit

Out · last detection 11 Feb 2017, 11:18 UTC

The fire started on 6 February 2017 in Torit, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,791 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 54th largest in Eastern Equatoria since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 146 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
5,791ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
6 Feb 2017 – 10 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
6 Feb
2017
Heat detections
122
in a single hotspot: 160 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Feb10 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

681011

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
40km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 19 Feb.

This area had burned before

29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,716 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Torit where it started
    5,829 ha reached on 6 Feb
    1.0 %

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)
6 Feb 37.9 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Feb 37.4 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Feb 38.0 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Feb 37.4 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Feb 39.2 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Feb after 40.0 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
12 Feb after 38.5 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Feb after 37.9 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Feb after 35.9 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Feb after 36.3 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Feb after 36.4 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Feb after 33.4 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Feb after 34.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Feb after 33.6 °C 36 % 40 km/h 2.2 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jan 2017
After · 17 Feb 2017

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 · 122Every 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 Torit fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 February 2017 and 10 February 2017: 5 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 5,791 hectares (57.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Torit (5,829 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 40 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.