Baliet fire, 7 December 2021 Baliet, Malakal
The fire started on 7 December 2021 in Baliet, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,698 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 46th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 37 in South Sudan in 2021, of 212.
- Burnt area
- 13,698ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 7 Dec 2021 – 10 Dec 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 7 Dec
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 351
- in a single hotspot: 174 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.5GW
- 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 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10,248 ha in 2016, 1,499 ha in 2017, 6,248 ha in 2018, 5,894 ha in 2019, 6,009 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,283 ha that had burned before.
- 6,062 ha Baliet fire, January 2018 9,468 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,046 ha Baliet fire, December 2020 5,705 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,917 ha Baliet fire, December 2019 6,944 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,442 ha Baliet fire, February 2020 5,343 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,326 ha Baliet fire, November 2016 5,876 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Baliet where it started13,722 ha reached on 6 Dec1.2 %
-
69 ha reached on 6 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Dec | 38.4 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 8 Dec | 38.3 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 9 Dec | 37.9 °C | 14 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 10 Dec | 38.0 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 11 Dec after | 38.5 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 12 Dec after | 38.5 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 13 Dec after | 38.1 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 14 Dec after | 38.1 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Dec after | 38.2 °C | 11 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 16 Dec after | 37.6 °C | 14 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 17 Dec after | 36.3 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 18 Dec after | 35.7 °C | 18 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 19 Dec after | 35.6 °C | 14 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 20 Dec after | 33.8 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
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 · 351Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Baliet fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 December 2021 and 10 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 13,698 hectares (137.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Baliet (13,722 ha, 1.2 %); Malakal (69 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 46 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
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.