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Fangak fire, April 2020 Fangak

Out · last detection 20 Apr 2020, 10:53 UTC

The fire started on 14 April 2020 in Fangak, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,850 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 78th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 32 in South Sudan in 2020, of 190.

Burnt area
12,850ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
14 Apr 2020 – 20 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
14 Apr
2020
Heat detections
301
in a single hotspot: 263 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
7.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Apr20 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

141516171820

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
44km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,227 ha in 2017, 3,025 ha in 2018, 6,439 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,453 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Fangak where it started
    12,928 ha reached on 14 Apr
    1.7 %

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)
14 Apr 39.7 °C 6 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
15 Apr 40.3 °C 5 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
16 Apr 40.6 °C 5 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
17 Apr 40.9 °C 5 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Apr 38.1 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
19 Apr 33.9 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm High 37
20 Apr 36.6 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Apr after 39.3 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Apr after 40.5 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Apr after 39.2 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Apr after 39.3 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
25 Apr after 39.8 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Apr after 40.7 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Apr after 39.2 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Apr after 38.3 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Apr after 39.4 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Apr after 40.8 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Apr 2020
After · 27 Apr 2020

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 · 301Every 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 14 April 2020 and 20 April 2020: 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 12,850 hectares (128.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Fangak (12,928 ha, 1.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.9 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, 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.