Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Ezo fire, 8 January 2020 Ezo, Nzara, Tambura

Out · last detection 14 Jan 2020, 23:49 UTC

The fire started on 8 January 2020 in Ezo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,642 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 129th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 54 in South Sudan in 2020, of 190.

Burnt area
10,642ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
8 Jan 2020 – 13 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
8 Jan
2020
Heat detections
349
in a single hotspot: 124 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Jan 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Jan13 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
39km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,643 ha in 2016, 4,944 ha in 2017, 1,171 ha in 2018, 827 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,143 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ezo where it started
    8,448 ha reached on 8 Jan
    1.0 %
  2. Nzara
    1,755 ha reached on 9 Jan
    0.3 %
  3. Tambura
    511 ha reached on 8 Jan
    0.0 %

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)
8 Jan 36.7 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Jan 35.5 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Jan 35.2 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Jan 34.3 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Jan 32.9 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Jan 34.3 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Jan after 36.9 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Jan after 37.9 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jan after 38.7 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Jan after 39.2 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Jan after 36.9 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
19 Jan after 34.9 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan after 34.3 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Jan after 34.3 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Jan after 33.9 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Jan after 33.4 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Jan 2020
After · 20 Jan 2020

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 · 349Every 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 Ezo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 January 2020 and 13 January 2020: 6 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 10,642 hectares (106.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ezo (8,448 ha, 1.0 %); Nzara (1,755 ha, 0.3 %); Tambura (511 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.