Lafon fire, 16 January 2026 Lafon, Pibor
The fire started on 16 January 2026 in Lafon, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 39,702 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in Eastern Equatoria since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 5 in South Sudan in 2026, of 182.
- Burnt area
- 39,702ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 16 Jan 2026 – 27 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 16 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 1,389
- in a single hotspot: 147 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 10.2GW
- 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 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,781 ha in 2016, 1,853 ha in 2017, 3,064 ha in 2018, 5,475 ha in 2019, 3,011 ha in 2020, 27,989 ha in 2021, 1,630 ha in 2022, 6,865 ha in 2023, 14,461 ha in 2024, 562 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 34,368 ha that had burned before.
- 14,468 ha Lafon fire, February 2021 55,315 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,781 ha Lafon fire, December 2021 9,785 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,991 ha Lafon fire, January 2023 8,374 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,802 ha Lafon fire, January 2024 5,248 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,203 ha Lafon fire, February 2023 17,278 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,106 ha Lafon fire, January 2019 58,253 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 789 ha Lafon fire, January 2024 5,986 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 518 ha Pibor fire, January 2019 11,728 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lafon where it started39,631 ha reached on 16 Jan2.4 %
-
366 ha reached on 27 Jan0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Jan | 35.3 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 17 Jan | 36.6 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Jan | 36.9 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 19 Jan | 36.6 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 20 Jan | 39.0 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 21 Jan | 39.0 °C | 21 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 22 Jan | 39.4 °C | 16 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 23 Jan | 39.4 °C | 16 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 24 Jan | 40.0 °C | 17 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 25 Jan | 39.6 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 26 Jan | 38.7 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 27 Jan | 37.6 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 28 Jan after | 37.8 °C | 26 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 29 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Jan after | 38.3 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 31 Jan after | 37.9 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 1 Feb after | 32.4 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 2 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Feb after | 37.8 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 4 Feb after | 38.9 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 5 Feb after | 38.1 °C | 21 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 6 Feb after | 38.4 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 7 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 25 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 18 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 105 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 1,389Every 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 16 January 2026 and 27 January 2026: 12 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 39,702 hectares (397.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lafon (39,631 ha, 2.4 %); Pibor (366 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, 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.