Baliet fire, 14 January 2022 Panyikang, Baliet, Canal/Pigi
The fire started on 14 January 2022 in Baliet, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 29,396 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 20th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 285 with a page). Number 11 in South Sudan in 2022, of 124.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 29,396ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 26days
- 14 Jan 2022 – 8 Feb 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- counties
- Started on
- 14 Jan
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 1,080
- in a single hotspot: 139 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 329MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13,473 ha in 2016, 19,964 ha in 2017, 4,608 ha in 2018, 12,707 ha in 2019, 8,451 ha in 2020, 12,004 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 28,334 ha that had burned before.
- 18,835 ha Panyikang fire, December 2017 58,289 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11,746 ha Canal/Pigi fire, December 2019 23,541 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,985 ha Panyikang fire, March 2021 11,579 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,274 ha Baliet fire, February 2020 6,819 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,895 ha Baliet fire, March 2021 8,049 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,540 ha Nyirol fire, November 2016 9,352 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,827 ha Panyikang fire, November 2016 9,613 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
20,625 ha reached on 18 Jan4.1 %
-
Baliet where it started7,719 ha reached on 14 Jan0.7 %
-
1,117 ha reached on 17 Jan0.2 %
-
89 ha reached on 16 Jan0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jan | 38.7 °C | 18 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Jan | 38.8 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 16 Jan | 38.5 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 17 Jan | 32.7 °C | 15 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Jan | 33.2 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 19 Jan | 33.7 °C | 11 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 20 Jan | 32.7 °C | 11 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 21 Jan | 35.2 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 22 Jan | 35.3 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 23 Jan | 36.7 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 24 Jan | 37.4 °C | 12 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 25 Jan | 37.9 °C | 13 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 26 Jan | 37.7 °C | 14 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 27 Jan | 34.9 °C | 15 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 28 Jan | 34.3 °C | 16 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 29 Jan | 34.1 °C | 14 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 30 Jan | 34.9 °C | 14 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 31 Jan | 36.1 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 1 Feb | 35.4 °C | 10 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 2 Feb | 37.4 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 3 Feb | 38.4 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 4 Feb | 38.3 °C | 9 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 5 Feb | 34.6 °C | 11 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 6 Feb | 34.1 °C | 12 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 7 Feb | 35.1 °C | 9 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 8 Feb | 37.3 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 9 Feb after | 38.3 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 10 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 15 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 11 Feb after | 38.6 °C | 11 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 12 Feb after | 38.3 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 13 Feb after | 39.2 °C | 13 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 14 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 9 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 15 Feb after | 38.9 °C | 10 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 16 Feb after | 39.1 °C | 11 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 17 Feb after | 39.3 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 18 Feb after | 39.4 °C | 7 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
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 · 1,080Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 58,289 haPanyikang17 December 2017 · 43 days · 5 km away
- 23,541 haCanal/Pigi19 December 2019 · 33 days · 6 km away
- 37,962 haPanyikang17 December 2019 · 34 days · 20 km away
- 36,489 haPanyikang7 December 2019 · 47 days · 29 km away
- 34,593 haNyirol14 December 2023 · 43 days · 34 km away
- 29,872 haCanal/PigiFebruary 2022 · 17 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Baliet fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 January 2022 to 8 February 2022 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 January 2022 to 2 February 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 29,396 hectares (294.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Panyikang (20,625 ha, 4.1 %); Baliet (7,719 ha, 0.7 %); Canal/Pigi (1,117 ha, 0.2 %); Nyirol (89 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 75, class Very 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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 2 February 2022 → 8 February 2022.
- Start date: 18 January 2022 → 14 January 2022.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 January 2022 to 2 February 2022. 1,080 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.