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Fangak fire, March 2016 Fangak

Out · last detection 28 Mar 2016, 11:19 UTC

The fire started on 23 March 2016 in Fangak, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,580 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 348th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 207 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
5,580ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
23 Mar 2016 – 28 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
23 Mar
2016
Heat detections
162
in a single hotspot: 92 MW
Danger at start
71
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Mar28 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2324252728

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

The weather it burned in

43°high
54km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Fangak where it started
    5,614 ha reached on 23 Mar
    0.7 %

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)
23 Mar 41.7 °C 6 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
24 Mar 42.4 °C 4 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
25 Mar 41.4 °C 7 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
26 Mar 38.0 °C 25 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
27 Mar 42.7 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Mar 43.0 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Mar after 42.3 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Mar after 42.0 °C 11 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Mar after 42.0 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
1 Apr after 40.9 °C 5 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
2 Apr after 39.8 °C 11 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Apr after 40.3 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Apr after 39.5 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Apr after 40.9 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Apr after 41.1 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Apr after 39.6 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Mar 2016
After · 4 Apr 2016

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 · 162Every 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 Fangak fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2016 and 28 March 2016: 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 5,580 hectares (55.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Fangak (5,614 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 43.0 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 71, class Very 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

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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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.