Lafon fire, 15 January 2023 Lafon
The fire started on 15 January 2023 in Lafon, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,374 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 28th largest in Eastern Equatoria since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 45 in South Sudan in 2023, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 8,374ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 15 Jan 2023 – 20 Jan 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 15 Jan
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 316
- in a single hotspot: 135 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.4GW
- 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
86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,348 ha in 2016, 743 ha in 2017, 3,029 ha in 2018, 54 ha in 2020, 6,684 ha in 2021, 276 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,194 ha that had burned before.
- 3,712 ha Lafon fire, February 2021 55,315 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,264 ha Lafon fire, December 2021 9,785 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,973 ha Lafon fire, December 2018 5,130 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 381 ha Lafon fire, January 2017 7,464 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lafon where it started8,438 ha reached on 15 Jan0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Jan | 37.0 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Jan | 35.2 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Jan | 37.3 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 18 Jan | 36.6 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 19 Jan | 37.0 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Jan | 37.5 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 21 Jan after | 38.9 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 22 Jan after | 37.6 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Jan after | 38.6 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 24 Jan after | 37.1 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 25 Jan after | 37.7 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 26 Jan after | 36.8 °C | 22 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Jan after | 38.7 °C | 16 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 28 Jan after | 39.3 °C | 15 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 29 Jan after | 39.2 °C | 15 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 30 Jan after | 37.9 °C | 19 % | 42 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 · 316Every 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 Lafon fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 January 2023 and 20 January 2023: 6 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 8,374 hectares (83.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lafon (8,438 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.
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.