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Baliet fire, 12 November 2016 Baliet

Out · last detection 18 Nov 2016, 11:13 UTC

The fire started on 12 November 2016 in Baliet, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,107 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 194th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 179 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
6,107ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
12 Nov 2016 – 18 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
12 Nov
2016
Heat detections
135
in a single hotspot: 40 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
842MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Nov18 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161718

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
35km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 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. Baliet where it started
    6,142 ha reached on 12 Nov
    0.5 %

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)
12 Nov 37.7 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Nov 37.7 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Nov 38.4 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Nov 38.6 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Nov 39.2 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Nov 37.2 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Nov 36.3 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Nov after 37.0 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Nov after 37.7 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Nov after 38.4 °C 20 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Nov after 38.7 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Nov after 36.7 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Nov after 37.4 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Nov after 36.4 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Nov after 36.8 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Nov after 37.5 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Nov after 37.9 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Nov 2016
After · 25 Nov 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 · 135Every 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 Baliet fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 November 2016 and 18 November 2016: 7 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 6,107 hectares (61.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Baliet (6,142 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
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.