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Fashoda fire, December 2018 Fashoda

Out · last detection 5 Jan 2019, 11:25 UTC

The fire started on 22 December 2018 in Fashoda, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,572 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 135th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 56 in South Sudan in 2018, of 120.

Burnt area
7,572ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
22 Dec 2018 – 4 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
22 Dec
2018
Heat detections
220
in a single hotspot: 35 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Jan 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Dec4 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526272829303112345

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
49km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 52 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,947 ha in 2016, 1,751 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,785 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Fashoda where it started
    7,619 ha reached on 22 Dec
    2.1 %

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)
22 Dec 34.4 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Dec 34.4 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Dec 35.5 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Dec 36.7 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Dec 36.9 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Dec 36.3 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Dec 35.4 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Dec 35.8 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Dec 34.4 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
31 Dec 35.0 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Jan 36.2 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Jan 36.2 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Jan 35.2 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
4 Jan 37.6 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Jan after 38.2 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
6 Jan after 37.8 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
7 Jan after 35.0 °C 14 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
8 Jan after 36.0 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
9 Jan after 35.7 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Jan after 37.3 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
11 Jan after 36.6 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
12 Jan after 38.7 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Jan after 39.3 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Jan after 37.6 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Dec 2018
After · 11 Jan 2019

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 · 220Every 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 Fashoda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 December 2018 and 4 January 2019: 14 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 7,572 hectares (75.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Fashoda (7,619 ha, 2.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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

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.