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Fangak fire, 8 December 2017 Fangak, Ayod

Out · last detection 15 Jan 2018, 23:17 UTC

The fire started on 8 December 2017 in Fangak, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 31,880 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 7 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Fangak · 2016Fangak · 2016Fangak · 2019Ayod · 2017

Burnt area
31,880ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
38days
8 Dec 2017 – 14 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
8 Dec
2017
Heat detections
2,254
in a single hotspot: 156 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
490MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Dec14 Jan
15 Jan 2018

How it evolved, day by day

8 Dec 2017 · 133 MW · 18 9 Dec 2017 · 172 MW · 19 10 Dec 2017 · 783 MW · 76 11 Dec 2017 · 779 MW · 75 12 Dec 2017 · 1,432 MW · 150 13 Dec 2017 · 3,800 MW · 258 14 Dec 2017 · 977 MW · 185 15 Dec 2017 · 2,260 MW · 204 16 Dec 2017 · 1,562 MW · 137 17 Dec 2017 · 1,007 MW · 119 18 Dec 2017 · 688 MW · 86 19 Dec 2017 · 214 MW · 25 20 Dec 2017 · 289 MW · 29 21 Dec 2017 · 34 MW · 10 22 Dec 2017 · 168 MW · 23 23 Dec 2017 · 144 MW · 21 24 Dec 2017 · 210 MW · 22 25 Dec 2017 · 62 MW · 14 26 Dec 2017 · 144 MW · 22 27 Dec 2017 · 427 MW · 40 28 Dec 2017 · 452 MW · 54 29 Dec 2017 · 317 MW · 49 30 Dec 2017 · 336 MW · 69 31 Dec 2017 · 322 MW · 28 1 Jan 2018 · 178 MW · 16 2 Jan 2018 · 170 MW · 23 3 Jan 2018 · 92 MW · 16 4 Jan 2018 · 185 MW · 33 5 Jan 2018 · 358 MW · 45 6 Jan 2018 · 216 MW · 43 7 Jan 2018 · 348 MW · 36 8 Jan 2018 · 141 MW · 29 9 Jan 2018 · 137 MW · 24 10 Jan 2018 · 31 MW · 6 11 Jan 2018 · 184 MW · 30 12 Jan 2018 · 30 MW · 10 13 Jan 2018 · 116 MW · 18 14 Jan 2018 · 139 MW · 15 15 Jan 2018 · 57 MW · 14
8 Dec 13 Dec 14 Dec 20 Dec 26 Dec 1 Jan 7 Jan 13 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

40°high
48km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,056 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 20% of the area of London (319 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. Fangak where it started
    25,504 ha reached on 1 Dec
    3.3 %
  2. Ayod
    6,582 ha reached on 1 Dec
    0.5 %

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 2015
Built-up area0.18 ha
Residents≈ 250

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.18 hectares of built-up land and about 250 residents (GHSL 2015, 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)
1 Dec 37.1 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Dec 37.1 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Dec 37.7 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Dec 38.5 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Dec 38.8 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Dec 38.7 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Dec 37.9 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Dec 37.6 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Dec 38.1 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Dec 38.6 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Dec 39.1 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Dec 38.8 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Dec 38.4 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Dec 38.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Dec 38.1 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Dec 38.0 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
17 Dec 38.2 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Dec 38.4 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Dec 38.9 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Dec 39.0 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Dec 39.3 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Dec 39.1 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Dec 38.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Dec 39.0 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Dec 37.7 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
26 Dec 37.2 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
27 Dec 37.7 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
28 Dec 38.7 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
29 Dec 39.3 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Dec 38.8 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
31 Dec 37.6 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
1 Jan 34.7 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
2 Jan 33.5 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
3 Jan 34.4 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Jan 34.3 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Jan 33.9 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
6 Jan 34.4 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
7 Jan 35.1 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
8 Jan 35.7 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
9 Jan 35.7 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Jan 36.6 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
11 Jan 37.7 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Jan 38.0 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
13 Jan 39.7 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
14 Jan 39.0 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
15 Jan after 37.0 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
16 Jan after 36.5 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
17 Jan after 36.9 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Jan after 37.2 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
19 Jan after 37.2 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
20 Jan after 37.1 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
21 Jan after 37.8 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
22 Jan after 38.1 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
23 Jan after 38.2 °C 9 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
24 Jan after 37.2 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
25 Jan after 36.9 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
26 Jan after 36.5 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
27 Jan after 35.8 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
28 Jan after 36.1 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
29 Jan after 35.7 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
30 Jan after 35.4 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
31 Jan after 35.3 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Dec 2017
After · 21 Jan 2018

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 · 2,254Every 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 8 December 2017 and 14 January 2018: 38 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 31,880 hectares (318.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Fangak (25,504 ha, 3.3 %); Ayod (6,582 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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. 2,254 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 2015, 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.