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Ibba fire, 30 December 2019 Wulu, Ibba, Yambio

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2020, 11:30 UTC

The fire started on 30 December 2019 in Ibba, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,012 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 79th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 28 in South Sudan in 2019, of 150.

Burnt area
15,012ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
30 Dec 2019 – 12 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
30 Dec
2019
Heat detections
751
in a single hotspot: 123 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jan 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Dec12 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

303112345678910111213

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
42km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,886 ha in 2016, 6,642 ha in 2017, 147 ha in 2018, 139 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,936 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Wulu
    7,125 ha reached on 24 Dec
    0.6 %
  2. Ibba where it started
    6,321 ha reached on 23 Dec
    0.6 %
  3. Yambio
    1,669 ha reached on 25 Dec
    0.2 %

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)
30 Dec 35.6 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Dec 36.1 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Jan 36.0 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Jan 36.2 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Jan 36.4 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Jan 35.6 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Jan 33.0 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Jan 34.1 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Jan 35.3 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Jan 35.9 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Jan 34.9 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Jan 34.3 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Jan 33.5 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Jan 32.2 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Jan after 33.5 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Jan after 36.0 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Jan after 37.4 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Jan after 37.6 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Jan after 38.2 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Jan after 36.5 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Jan after 34.2 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Jan after 34.0 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
21 Jan after 33.7 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jan after 33.5 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Dec 2019
After · 19 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 · 751Every 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 Ibba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 December 2019 and 12 January 2020: 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 15,012 hectares (150.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Wulu (7,125 ha, 0.6 %); Ibba (6,321 ha, 0.6 %); Yambio (1,669 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very high.
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.