Baliet fire, 21 December 2017 Baliet, Panyikang
The fire started on 21 December 2017 in Baliet, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,039 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 282th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 202 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.
- Burnt area
- 5,039ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 21 Dec 2017 – 29 Dec 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 21 Dec
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 161
- in a single hotspot: 84 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- sum of detected power
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 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,020 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Baliet where it started4,427 ha reached on 21 Dec0.4 %
-
641 ha reached on 26 Dec0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Dec | 39.4 °C | 14 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Dec | 38.9 °C | 11 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Dec | 38.9 °C | 10 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 24 Dec | 39.2 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 25 Dec | 37.7 °C | 13 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 26 Dec | 37.4 °C | 14 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 27 Dec | 38.1 °C | 13 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 28 Dec | 39.0 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 29 Dec | 39.2 °C | 10 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 30 Dec after | 38.6 °C | 10 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 31 Dec after | 37.6 °C | 12 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 1 Jan after | 34.8 °C | 17 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 2 Jan after | 33.6 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 3 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 4 Jan after | 34.3 °C | 15 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 5 Jan after | 34.2 °C | 15 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 6 Jan after | 34.4 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 7 Jan after | 35.2 °C | 9 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 8 Jan after | 35.8 °C | 11 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
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 · 161Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 37,962 haPanyikang22 December 2019 · 27 days · 10 km away
- 36,489 haPanyikang12 December 2019 · 37 days · 13 km away
- 22,934 haPanyikang19 December 2023 · 22 days · 20 km away
- 29,396 haBaliet18 January 2022 · 16 days · 28 km away
- 23,541 haCanal/Pigi26 December 2019 · 21 days · 29 km away
- 58,289 haPanyikang24 December 2017 · 29 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Baliet fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 December 2017 and 29 December 2017: 9 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 5,039 hectares (50.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Baliet (4,427 ha, 0.4 %); Panyikang (641 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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
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.