Ezo fire, 31 December 2023 Ezo
The fire started on 31 December 2023 in Ezo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 26,389 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 37th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 6 in South Sudan in 2023, of 110.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Ezo · 2022Ezo · 2019Ezo · 2016Ezo · 2020
- Burnt area
- 26,389ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 21days
- 31 Dec 2023 – 20 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 31 Dec
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 1,460
- in a single hotspot: 105 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 563MW
- 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 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13,412 ha in 2016, 11,271 ha in 2017, 2,989 ha in 2018, 11,967 ha in 2019, 12,247 ha in 2020, 10,132 ha in 2021, 15,418 ha in 2022, 778 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 25,724 ha that had burned before.
- 11,537 ha Ezo fire, December 2022 34,202 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10,833 ha Ezo fire, December 2019 72,777 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,839 ha Ezo fire, December 2016 21,896 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,476 ha Ezo fire, December 2020 6,117 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,119 ha Ezo fire, December 2020 13,110 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,301 ha Ezo fire, January 2016 5,810 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,723 ha Ezo fire, December 2022 9,137 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,287 ha Ezo fire, January 2020 10,339 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
-
Ezo where it started26,585 ha reached on 31 Dec3.3 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Dec | 35.6 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 1 Jan | 35.0 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Jan | 36.0 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 3 Jan | 35.7 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 4 Jan | 35.7 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 5 Jan | 34.6 °C | 12 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 6 Jan | 34.8 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 7 Jan | 34.8 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Jan | 36.0 °C | 13 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Jan | 36.2 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 10 Jan | 36.3 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 11 Jan | 36.5 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 12 Jan | 35.9 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 13 Jan | 35.1 °C | 15 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 14 Jan | 36.9 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Jan | 35.7 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 Jan | 35.0 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 17 Jan | 33.4 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 18 Jan | 34.5 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 19 Jan | 34.9 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 20 Jan | 35.0 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 21 Jan after | 35.3 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 22 Jan after | 36.4 °C | 10 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Jan after | 36.9 °C | 12 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 24 Jan after | 37.2 °C | 15 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Jan after | 37.1 °C | 15 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 26 Jan after | 35.4 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 27 Jan after | 34.0 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 28 Jan after | 33.1 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 29 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 30 Jan after | 36.3 °C | 13 % | 35 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.
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 5 January 2024 the air beside the fire reached 126 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 71: 4.8 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 · 1,460Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 91,824 haNagero19 December 2024 · 30 days · 9 km away
- 35,433 haEzo17 December 2021 · 28 days · 10 km away
- 72,777 haEzo22 December 2019 · 31 days · 14 km away
- 34,202 haEzo20 December 2022 · 32 days · 15 km away
- 88,595 haNagero8 December 2025 · 29 days · 23 km away
- 51,661 haNzara18 December 2019 · 38 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ezo fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 December 2023 to 20 January 2024 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 January 2024 to 16 January 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 26,389 hectares (263.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ezo (26,585 ha, 3.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 36 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 16 January 2024 → 20 January 2024.
- Start date: 7 January 2024 → 31 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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 January 2024 to 16 January 2024. 1,460 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.
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.