Baliet fire, 21 December 2023 Baliet, Panyikang
The fire started on 21 December 2023 in Baliet, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,081 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 152th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 286 with a page). Number 64 in South Sudan in 2023, of 106.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 7,081ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 24days
- 21 Dec 2023 – 13 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 21 Dec
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 313
- in a single hotspot: 83 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 147MW
- 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 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,355 ha in 2016, 534 ha in 2017, 2,052 ha in 2018, 1,580 ha in 2019, 3,808 ha in 2020, 1,749 ha in 2021, 2,521 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,014 ha that had burned before.
- 1,356 ha Baliet fire, February 2021 5,557 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 834 ha Baliet fire, December 2019 5,471 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 746 ha Panyikang fire, December 2019 37,962 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 485 ha Baliet fire, February 2020 6,819 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 393 ha Panyikang fire, March 2021 12,977 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 128 ha Baliet fire, January 2022 29,396 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
-
Baliet where it started3,971 ha reached on 24 Dec0.3 %
-
3,146 ha reached on 21 Dec0.6 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Dec | 39.5 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 22 Dec | 40.2 °C | 11 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 23 Dec | 39.0 °C | 11 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 24 Dec | 37.8 °C | 10 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 25 Dec | 38.2 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 26 Dec | 37.7 °C | 16 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 27 Dec | 37.6 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 28 Dec | 36.8 °C | 15 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 29 Dec | 37.1 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 30 Dec | 37.2 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 31 Dec | 37.2 °C | 11 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 1 Jan | 37.3 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 2 Jan | 38.0 °C | 13 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 3 Jan | 37.6 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 4 Jan | 37.7 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 5 Jan | 36.2 °C | 11 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 6 Jan | 36.8 °C | 10 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 7 Jan | 36.8 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 8 Jan | 37.7 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 9 Jan | 38.7 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 10 Jan | 38.9 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 11 Jan | 38.9 °C | 14 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 12 Jan | 37.5 °C | 13 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 13 Jan | 37.7 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 14 Jan after | 38.4 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 15 Jan after | 37.4 °C | 11 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 16 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 12 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 17 Jan after | 36.8 °C | 16 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 18 Jan after | 35.8 °C | 12 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 19 Jan after | 36.8 °C | 8 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 20 Jan after | 36.9 °C | 9 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 21 Jan after | 37.4 °C | 10 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 22 Jan after | 38.5 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 23 Jan after | 39.2 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 1 January 2024 the air beside the fire reached 61 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 313Every 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 haPanyikang17 December 2019 · 34 days · 13 km away
- 29,396 haBaliet14 January 2022 · 26 days · 13 km away
- 58,289 haPanyikang17 December 2017 · 43 days · 18 km away
- 23,541 haCanal/Pigi19 December 2019 · 33 days · 18 km away
- 36,489 haPanyikang7 December 2019 · 47 days · 30 km away
- 34,593 haNyirol14 December 2023 · 43 days · 32 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 21 December 2023 to 13 January 2024 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 December 2023 to 6 January 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,081 hectares (70.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Baliet (3,971 ha, 0.3 %); Panyikang (3,146 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, 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
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: 6 January 2024 → 13 January 2024.
- Start date: 25 December 2023 → 21 December 2023.
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.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 25 December 2023 to 6 January 2024. 313 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 2025, 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.