Ezo fire, 1 January 2024 Ezo, Nagero
The fire started on 1 January 2024 in Ezo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,668 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 177th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 84 in South Sudan in 2024, of 180.
- Burnt area
- 7,668ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 1 Jan 2024 – 7 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 1 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 243
- in a single hotspot: 294 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- sum of detected power
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
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,507 ha in 2016, 1,316 ha in 2017, 2,855 ha in 2019, 2,892 ha in 2020, 2,876 ha in 2021, 2,387 ha in 2022, 606 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,253 ha that had burned before.
- 981 ha Ezo fire, December 2020 13,110 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 66 ha Ezo fire, December 2019 72,777 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 21 ha Ezo fire, January 2016 5,810 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ezo where it started4,281 ha reached on 29 Dec0.5 %
-
3,440 ha reached on 29 Dec0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | 35.9 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Jan | 36.9 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Jan | 36.5 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 4 Jan | 36.4 °C | 11 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 5 Jan | 35.5 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 6 Jan | 35.7 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Jan | 35.6 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 9 Jan after | 36.9 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 10 Jan after | 37.1 °C | 14 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Jan after | 37.3 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 12 Jan after | 36.8 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 13 Jan after | 35.9 °C | 14 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 14 Jan after | 37.7 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Jan after | 36.4 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 16 Jan after | 35.8 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 17 Jan after | 34.5 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
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 · 243Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ezo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 January 2024 and 7 January 2024: 7 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 7,668 hectares (76.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ezo (4,281 ha, 0.5 %); Nagero (3,440 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 36 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
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.