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Ezo fire, 27 December 2022 Ezo, Nagero

Out · last detection 16 Jan 2023, 11:26 UTC

The fire started on 27 December 2022 in Ezo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 34,202 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 29th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 6 in South Sudan in 2022, of 124.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ezo · 2019Ezo · 2020Ezo · 2020Ezo · 2021

Burnt area
34,202ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
27 Dec 2022 – 15 Jan 2023
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
27 Dec
2022
Heat detections
1,417
in a single hotspot: 134 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Average daily power
605MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Dec15 Jan
16 Jan 2023

How it evolved, day by day

27 Dec 2022 · 53 MW · 8 28 Dec 2022 · 231 MW · 57 29 Dec 2022 · 1,408 MW · 152 30 Dec 2022 · 1,665 MW · 147 31 Dec 2022 · 3,179 MW · 141 1 Jan 2023 · 441 MW · 82 2 Jan 2023 · 1,543 MW · 77 3 Jan 2023 · 162 MW · 40 4 Jan 2023 · 394 MW · 65 5 Jan 2023 · 904 MW · 68 6 Jan 2023 · 543 MW · 89 7 Jan 2023 · 154 MW · 45 8 Jan 2023 · 473 MW · 56 9 Jan 2023 · 226 MW · 33 10 Jan 2023 · 212 MW · 36 11 Jan 2023 · 182 MW · 64 12 Jan 2023 · 138 MW · 37 13 Jan 2023 · 323 MW · 24 14 Jan 2023 · 276 MW · 83 15 Jan 2023 · 180 MW · 6 16 Jan 2023 · 17 MW · 3
27 Dec 30 Dec 31 Dec 2 Jan 5 Jan 8 Jan 11 Jan 14 Jan

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
44km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 18,217 ha in 2016, 10,755 ha in 2017, 607 ha in 2018, 11,013 ha in 2019, 19,593 ha in 2020, 16,460 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 31,311 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 22% of the area of London (342 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Ezo where it started
    34,198 ha reached on 21 Dec
    4.2 %
  2. Nagero
    256 ha reached on 3 Jan
    0.0 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside 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)
21 Dec 34.6 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Dec 35.1 °C 21 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Dec 34.9 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Dec 33.7 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Dec 33.1 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Dec 32.4 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Dec 31.7 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Dec 33.2 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Dec 33.6 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Dec 33.8 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Dec 34.2 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Jan 35.1 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Jan 35.0 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Jan 34.9 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Jan 35.1 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Jan 34.6 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Jan 35.4 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Jan 34.7 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Jan 34.4 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Jan 36.4 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Jan 33.0 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Jan 33.4 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Jan 34.0 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Jan 34.3 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Jan 35.0 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Jan 35.5 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Jan after 36.5 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Jan after 36.0 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Jan after 36.6 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Jan after 36.8 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Jan after 37.4 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
21 Jan after 37.2 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Jan after 37.0 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Jan after 37.0 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Jan after 37.3 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Jan after 36.4 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Jan after 35.5 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Jan after 37.9 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Jan after 38.8 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Jan after 38.0 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Jan after 37.4 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Dec 2022
After · 22 Jan 2023

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 · 1,417Every 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 27 December 2022 and 15 January 2023: 20 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 34,202 hectares (342.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ezo (34,198 ha, 4.2 %); Nagero (256 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,417 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.