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Lainya fire, January 2016 Lainya, Juba, Yei

Out · last detection 23 Jan 2016, 22:36 UTC

The fire started on 11 January 2016 in Lainya, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,594 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Central Equatoria since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 28 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
20,594ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
11 Jan 2016 – 22 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
4
counties
Started on
11 Jan
2016
Heat detections
1,080
in a single hotspot: 143 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
13.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jan22 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

11121314151617181920212223

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
33km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Lainya where it started
    16,460 ha reached on 4 Jan
    4.7 %
  2. Juba
    3,728 ha reached on 16 Jan
    0.2 %
  3. Yei
    472 ha reached on 5 Jan
    0.1 %
  4. Mundri West
    77 ha reached on 15 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)
11 Jan 35.5 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Jan 34.0 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Jan 33.1 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Jan 34.1 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Jan 32.9 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
16 Jan 33.8 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
17 Jan 33.4 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Jan 35.0 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Jan 34.2 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jan 34.0 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Jan 33.7 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Jan 33.1 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Jan after 36.3 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Jan after 34.4 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Jan after 33.4 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jan after 32.6 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jan after 30.8 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Jan after 31.1 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Jan after 30.2 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Jan after 32.0 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Jan after 32.6 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Feb after 33.5 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Jan 2016
After · 29 Jan 2016

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 · 1,080Every 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 Lainya fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 January 2016 and 22 January 2016: 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 20,594 hectares (205.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Lainya (16,460 ha, 4.7 %); Juba (3,728 ha, 0.2 %); Yei (472 ha, 0.1 %); Mundri West (77 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.