Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Cueibet fire, December 2020 Tonj South, Cueibet

Out · last detection 30 Dec 2020, 11:30 UTC

The fire started on 22 December 2020 in Cueibet, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,518 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 135th largest in Lakes since 2016 (of 158 with a page). Number 170 in South Sudan in 2020, of 190.

Burnt area
5,518ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
22 Dec 2020 – 1 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
22 Dec
2020
Heat detections
157
in a single hotspot: 71 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Dec 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Dec1 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2223242627282930

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
36km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 50 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 927 ha in 2016, 1,030 ha in 2017, 177 ha in 2018, 927 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,588 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Tonj South
    3,451 ha reached on 20 Dec
    0.5 %
  2. Cueibet where it started
    2,103 ha reached on 19 Dec
    0.4 %

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)
22 Dec 36.3 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Dec 37.1 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Dec 36.7 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Dec 37.7 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Dec 37.3 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Dec 36.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Dec 36.9 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Dec 36.7 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Dec 37.9 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Dec 37.5 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Jan 37.1 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Jan after 36.4 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Jan after 36.3 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Jan after 37.2 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Jan after 37.2 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Jan after 37.5 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Jan after 37.0 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Jan after 36.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Jan after 35.6 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Jan after 36.1 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Jan after 36.2 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Dec 2020
After · 8 Jan 2021

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 · 157Every 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 Cueibet fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 December 2020 and 1 January 2021: 11 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 5,518 hectares (55.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tonj South (3,451 ha, 0.5 %); Cueibet (2,103 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.