Fashoda fire, December 2021 Fashoda
The fire started on 5 December 2021 in Fashoda, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,538 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 169th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 134 in South Sudan in 2021, of 212.
- Burnt area
- 6,538ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 5 Dec 2021 – 7 Dec 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 5 Dec
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 151
- in a single hotspot: 161 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.3GW
- 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 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10 ha in 2016, 2,855 ha in 2017, 2,927 ha in 2019, 846 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,538 ha that had burned before.
- 2,855 ha Fashoda fire, December 2017 5,303 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 218 ha Fashoda fire, December 2020 5,470 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 113 ha Malakal fire, November 2019 22,311 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Fashoda where it started6,576 ha reached on 5 Dec1.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Dec | 38.9 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 6 Dec | 38.1 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 7 Dec | 38.6 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 8 Dec after | 38.4 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 9 Dec after | 37.9 °C | 14 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 10 Dec after | 38.1 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 11 Dec after | 38.7 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 12 Dec after | 38.9 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 13 Dec after | 38.4 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Dec after | 38.3 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 15 Dec after | 38.2 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 16 Dec after | 37.5 °C | 14 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 17 Dec after | 36.1 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
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 · 151Every 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 5 December 2021 and 7 December 2021: 3 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 6,538 hectares (65.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Fashoda (6,576 ha, 1.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.
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.