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Aweil Centre fire, 7 November 2025 Aweil Centre, Raga, Aweil West

Out · last detection 22 Dec 2025, 11:49 UTC

The fire started on 7 November 2025 in Aweil Centre, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 45 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 179,432 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 2th largest in Northern Bahr el Ghazal since 2016 (of 52 with a page). Number 3 in South Sudan in 2025, of 292.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Aweil Centre · 2017Raga · 2019Aweil Centre · 2024Aweil Centre · 2016

Burnt area
179,432ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
45days
7 Nov 2025 – 21 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
7 Nov
2025
Heat detections
4,783
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Average daily power
738MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Nov21 Dec
22 Dec 2025

How it evolved, day by day

7 Nov 2025 · 516 MW · 34 8 Nov 2025 · 811 MW · 83 9 Nov 2025 · 157 MW · 17 10 Nov 2025 · 106 MW · 17 11 Nov 2025 · 435 MW · 34 13 Nov 2025 · 7 MW · 6 14 Nov 2025 · 794 MW · 60 15 Nov 2025 · 1,656 MW · 111 16 Nov 2025 · 1,492 MW · 213 17 Nov 2025 · 472 MW · 80 18 Nov 2025 · 560 MW · 52 19 Nov 2025 · 180 MW · 33 20 Nov 2025 · 612 MW · 82 21 Nov 2025 · 2,299 MW · 206 22 Nov 2025 · 2,394 MW · 318 23 Nov 2025 · 814 MW · 83 24 Nov 2025 · 76 MW · 22 25 Nov 2025 · 748 MW · 54 26 Nov 2025 · 1,287 MW · 145 27 Nov 2025 · 769 MW · 151 28 Nov 2025 · 245 MW · 70 29 Nov 2025 · 141 MW · 42 30 Nov 2025 · 694 MW · 85 1 Dec 2025 · 864 MW · 111 2 Dec 2025 · 369 MW · 60 3 Dec 2025 · 219 MW · 97 4 Dec 2025 · 295 MW · 70 5 Dec 2025 · 532 MW · 60 6 Dec 2025 · 322 MW · 61 7 Dec 2025 · 479 MW · 49 8 Dec 2025 · 679 MW · 83 9 Dec 2025 · 267 MW · 37 10 Dec 2025 · 628 MW · 131 11 Dec 2025 · 630 MW · 58 12 Dec 2025 · 1,356 MW · 240 13 Dec 2025 · 1,536 MW · 466 14 Dec 2025 · 1,049 MW · 282 15 Dec 2025 · 1,066 MW · 319 16 Dec 2025 · 3,267 MW · 179 17 Dec 2025 · 866 MW · 153 18 Dec 2025 · 609 MW · 107 19 Dec 2025 · 377 MW · 123 20 Dec 2025 · 94 MW · 28 21 Dec 2025 · 145 MW · 27 22 Dec 2025 · 300 MW · 44
7 Nov 15 Nov 22 Nov 29 Nov 6 Dec 13 Dec 16 Dec 20 Dec

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
37km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 84,220 ha in 2016, 69,157 ha in 2017, 2,262 ha in 2018, 73,117 ha in 2019, 70,013 ha in 2020, 77,408 ha in 2021, 45,658 ha in 2022, 30,977 ha in 2023, 66,824 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 170,592 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.1 times the area of London (1,794 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Aweil Centre where it started
    113,678 ha
    10 %
  2. Raga
    59,019 ha
    1.0 %
  3. Aweil West
    7,851 ha
    1.6 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside 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 Nov 35.0 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Nov 35.4 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Nov 34.9 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Nov 34.9 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Nov 35.0 °C 22 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Nov 35.5 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Nov 35.4 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Nov 34.9 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Nov 32.8 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Nov 32.2 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Nov 33.2 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Nov 34.3 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Nov 35.2 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Nov 35.4 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Nov 35.2 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Nov 35.9 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Nov 35.7 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Nov 35.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Nov 35.3 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Nov 35.7 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Nov 35.5 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Nov 35.6 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Nov 35.7 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Nov 36.1 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Dec 36.0 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Dec 35.6 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Dec 35.4 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Dec 35.0 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Dec 35.6 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Dec 35.4 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Dec 35.8 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Dec 36.0 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Dec 34.2 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
10 Dec 32.9 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Dec 33.1 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Dec 33.7 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Dec 33.6 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 Dec 32.7 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Dec 31.8 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Dec 30.4 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Dec 31.0 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Dec 31.5 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Dec 32.1 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Dec 32.9 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Dec 33.7 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Dec after 33.8 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Dec after 33.6 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Dec after 33.7 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Dec after 35.8 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Dec after 35.3 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Dec after 35.5 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Dec after 34.0 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Dec after 33.9 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Dec after 33.9 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Dec after 32.0 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Oct 2025
After · 28 Dec 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 23 November 2025 the air beside the fire reached 86 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 55: 3.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak86 µg/m³
Days over the guideline49 days
PM10159 µg/m³
Optical depth0.65
56789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930123456789101112131415161718192021222324
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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.
⬇ 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 7 November 2025 and 21 December 2025: 45 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 179,432 hectares (1,794.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Aweil Centre (113,678 ha, 10 %); Raga (59,019 ha, 1.0 %); Aweil West (7,851 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.
  1. Last day with fire: 28 December 2025 → 21 December 2025.
  2. Start date: 31 October 2025 → 7 November 2025.
  3. Last day with fire: 21 December 2025 → 28 December 2025.
  4. Start date: 7 November 2025 → 31 October 2025.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 8 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.