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Aweil Centre fire, 25 November 2016 Aweil Centre

Out · last detection 13 Dec 2016, 11:44 UTC

The fire started on 25 November 2016 in Aweil Centre, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 33,836 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 7th largest in Northern Bahr el Ghazal since 2016 (of 53 with a page). Number 14 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
33,836ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
25 Nov 2016 – 12 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
25 Nov
2016
Heat detections
1,059
in a single hotspot: 209 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
7.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Nov12 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

25262728293012345678910111213

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
39km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 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. Aweil Centre where it started
    34,041 ha reached on 24 Nov
    3.0 %

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)
24 Nov 36.3 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Nov 36.7 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Nov 36.7 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Nov 37.6 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Nov 37.5 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Nov 37.9 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Nov 38.0 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Dec 36.8 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Dec 35.7 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Dec 36.7 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Dec 36.4 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Dec 36.8 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Dec 37.9 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Dec 37.1 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Dec 37.1 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Dec 36.1 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Dec 36.7 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Dec 35.9 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Dec 36.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Dec after 36.7 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Dec after 35.2 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Dec after 34.4 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Dec after 34.6 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Dec after 34.4 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Dec after 34.5 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Dec after 35.3 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Dec after 35.8 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
21 Dec after 36.4 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Dec after 36.6 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Dec after 37.8 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Dec after 37.8 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Dec after 35.6 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Dec after 34.3 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Dec after 34.0 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Dec after 33.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Dec after 36.1 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 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 · 1,059Every 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 Aweil Centre fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 November 2016 and 12 December 2016: 18 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 33,836 hectares (338.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Aweil Centre (34,041 ha, 3.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.