Fashoda fire, February 2021 Fashoda
The fire started on 6 February 2021 in Fashoda, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,851 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 206th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 163 in South Sudan in 2021, of 212.
- Burnt area
- 5,851ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 6 Feb 2021 – 9 Feb 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 6 Feb
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 175
- in a single hotspot: 92 MW
- Danger at start
- 78
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,909 ha in 2016, 30 ha in 2017, 1,650 ha in 2018, 3,034 ha in 2019, 137 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,470 ha that had burned before.
- 1,569 ha Fashoda fire, December 2018 7,572 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 399 ha Fashoda fire, December 2019 13,544 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 115 ha Fashoda fire, December 2020 5,470 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 22 ha Fashoda fire, December 2020 8,209 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16 ha Fashoda fire, January 2016 7,431 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Fashoda where it started5,887 ha reached on 6 Feb1.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Feb | 33.4 °C | 8 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 7 Feb | 34.7 °C | 7 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 8 Feb | 35.7 °C | 12 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 9 Feb | 36.8 °C | 12 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 10 Feb after | 38.6 °C | 11 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 11 Feb after | 39.7 °C | 9 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 12 Feb after | 40.0 °C | 8 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 13 Feb after | 39.8 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 14 Feb after | 40.3 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 15 Feb after | 40.8 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 16 Feb after | 40.5 °C | 7 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 17 Feb after | 35.0 °C | 9 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 79 |
| 18 Feb after | 33.0 °C | 9 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 79 |
| 19 Feb after | 33.9 °C | 10 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 175Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Fashoda fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 February 2021 and 9 February 2021: 4 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 5,851 hectares (58.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Fashoda (5,887 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 78, 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.
Report an error
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.