Aweil Centre fire, 15 November 2019 Aweil Centre
The fire started on 15 November 2019 in Aweil Centre, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,327 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 38th largest in Northern Bahr el Ghazal since 2016 (of 53 with a page). Number 111 in South Sudan in 2019, of 150.
- Burnt area
- 6,327ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 15 Nov 2019 – 19 Nov 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 15 Nov
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 166
- in a single hotspot: 369 MW
- Danger at start
- 19
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.4GW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,818 ha in 2016, 2,294 ha in 2017, 300 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,455 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Aweil Centre where it started6,370 ha reached on 16 Nov0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Nov | 35.1 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 16 Nov | 35.1 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 Nov | 35.0 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 18 Nov | 34.1 °C | 32 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 19 Nov | 33.8 °C | 35 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 20 Nov after | 34.7 °C | 17 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 21 Nov after | 33.8 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Nov after | 34.1 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 23 Nov after | 33.5 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Nov after | 33.4 °C | 22 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Nov after | 33.9 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 26 Nov after | 34.1 °C | 27 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 27 Nov after | 34.3 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 28 Nov after | 35.4 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Nov after | 34.7 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
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.
Detections table · 166Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 179,432 haAweil Centre7 November 2025 · 45 days · 14 km away
- 42,442 haAweil Centre21 November 2017 · 18 days · 22 km away
- 16,064 haAweil Centre25 November 2021 · 6 days · 28 km away
- 14,234 haAweil West14 November 2025 · 11 days · 30 km away
- 41,974 haAweil Centre6 December 2024 · 21 days · 34 km away
- 33,836 haAweil Centre25 November 2016 · 18 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Aweil Centre fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 November 2019 and 19 November 2019: 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 6,327 hectares (63.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Aweil Centre (6,370 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
- 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
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.