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Ibba fire, 20 January 2022 Ibba, Maridi

Out · last detection 26 Jan 2022, 10:40 UTC

The fire started on 20 January 2022 in Ibba, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,657 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 299th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 101 in South Sudan in 2022, of 124.

Burnt area
5,657ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
20 Jan 2022 – 26 Jan 2022
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
20 Jan
2022
Heat detections
129
in a single hotspot: 111 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jan 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jan26 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

202122232426

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
39km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,022 ha in 2016, 2,117 ha in 2017, 3,433 ha in 2018, 2,125 ha in 2020, 121 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,543 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ibba where it started
    5,616 ha reached on 20 Jan
    0.6 %
  2. Maridi
    82 ha reached on 20 Jan
    0.0 %

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)
20 Jan 32.0 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Jan 33.6 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Jan 34.4 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Jan 35.1 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Jan 35.8 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Jan 36.8 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Jan 36.0 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Jan after 35.2 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Jan after 33.2 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
29 Jan after 34.4 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Jan after 34.4 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Jan after 35.4 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Feb after 34.9 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Feb after 36.2 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Feb after 37.9 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Feb after 36.8 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Feb after 34.1 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jan 2022
After · 2 Feb 2022

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 · 129Every 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 20 January 2022 and 26 January 2022: 7 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 5,657 hectares (56.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ibba (5,616 ha, 0.6 %); Maridi (82 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.