Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Ayod fire, December 2016 Ayod

Out · last detection 26 Dec 2016, 11:00 UTC

The fire started on 20 December 2016 in Ayod, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,015 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 426th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 242 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
5,015ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
20 Dec 2016 – 25 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
20 Dec
2016
Heat detections
164
in a single hotspot: 60 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Dec25 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

20212223242526

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
48km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 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. Ayod where it started
    5,043 ha reached on 17 Dec
    0.4 %

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)
20 Dec 37.9 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Dec 37.7 °C 19 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
22 Dec 38.1 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Dec 38.1 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Dec 37.8 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Dec 38.6 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Dec after 36.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Dec after 36.9 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Dec after 37.2 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Dec after 38.5 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Dec after 38.7 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
31 Dec after 39.2 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
1 Jan after 38.7 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
2 Jan after 38.7 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
3 Jan after 38.8 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
4 Jan after 38.3 °C 15 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Dec 2016
After · 1 Jan 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 · 164Every 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 Ayod fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 December 2016 and 25 December 2016: 6 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 5,015 hectares (50.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ayod (5,043 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.