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Awerial fire, December 2021 Awerial, Terekeka

Out · last detection 14 Dec 2021, 23:25 UTC

The fire started on 11 December 2021 in Awerial, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,213 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 86th largest in Lakes since 2016 (of 158 with a page). Number 103 in South Sudan in 2021, of 212.

Burnt area
7,213ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
11 Dec 2021 – 14 Dec 2021
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
11 Dec
2021
Heat detections
157
in a single hotspot: 176 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Dec 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Dec14 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

11121314

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
46km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

43% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,213 ha in 2016, 2,498 ha in 2018, 768 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,119 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Awerial where it started
    6,402 ha reached on 11 Dec
    1.4 %
  2. Terekeka
    858 ha reached on 11 Dec
    0.1 %

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)
11 Dec 37.5 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Dec 37.9 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Dec 38.2 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Dec 37.6 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Dec after 37.7 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Dec after 37.2 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Dec after 36.8 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Dec after 36.9 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Dec after 36.4 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Dec after 35.8 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Dec after 33.8 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Dec after 35.2 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Dec after 35.8 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Dec after 35.5 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Dec 2021
After · 21 Dec 2021

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 · 157Every 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 Awerial fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 December 2021 and 14 December 2021: 4 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 7,213 hectares (72.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Awerial (6,402 ha, 1.4 %); Terekeka (858 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.