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Fashoda fire, December 2019 Fashoda

Out · last detection 1 Jan 2020, 22:51 UTC

The fire started on 17 December 2019 in Fashoda, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,544 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 49th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 32 in South Sudan in 2019, of 150.

Burnt area
13,544ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
17 Dec 2019 – 31 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
17 Dec
2019
Heat detections
507
in a single hotspot: 94 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Jan 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Dec31 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324252627282930311

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
46km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,526 ha in 2016, 4,969 ha in 2017, 919 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,418 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Fashoda where it started
    13,631 ha reached on 11 Dec
    3.8 %

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)
17 Dec 34.0 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Dec 34.5 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Dec 35.4 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
20 Dec 35.2 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Dec 36.0 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Dec 36.2 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Dec 36.0 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Dec 36.4 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Dec 36.0 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Dec 34.2 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 Dec 33.5 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Dec 33.1 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Dec 34.2 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Dec 35.7 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Dec 35.7 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Jan after 36.2 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Jan after 37.3 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Jan after 35.3 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
4 Jan after 33.3 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
5 Jan after 31.3 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
6 Jan after 33.5 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Jan after 35.4 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Jan after 34.4 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
9 Jan after 33.0 °C 11 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Jan after 31.2 °C 11 % 46 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 · 10 Dec 2019
After · 7 Jan 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 · 507Every 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 17 December 2019 and 31 December 2019: 15 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 13,544 hectares (135.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Fashoda (13,631 ha, 3.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.