Lainya fire, January 2023 Lainya, Juba, Yei
The fire started on 15 January 2023 in Lainya, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,836 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 29th largest in Central Equatoria since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 41 in South Sudan in 2023, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 8,836ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 15 Jan 2023 – 22 Jan 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- counties
- Started on
- 15 Jan
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 319
- in a single hotspot: 218 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.9GW
- 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 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,970 ha in 2016, 778 ha in 2017, 4,520 ha in 2018, 2,458 ha in 2019, 777 ha in 2020, 4,707 ha in 2021, 1,312 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,544 ha that had burned before.
- 3,325 ha Lainya fire, January 2016 20,594 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,730 ha Lainya fire, January 2021 6,732 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 393 ha Lainya fire, January 2017 8,671 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lainya where it started8,633 ha reached on 8 Jan2.4 %
-
266 ha reached on 8 Jan0.0 %
-
0 ha reached on 10 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Jan | 33.5 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Jan | 33.5 °C | 19 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 17 Jan | 34.7 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Jan | 34.2 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 19 Jan | 34.1 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Jan | 34.5 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 21 Jan | 35.9 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Jan | 33.4 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Jan after | 34.5 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Jan after | 32.4 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 25 Jan after | 34.3 °C | 22 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 26 Jan after | 32.7 °C | 31 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Jan after | 35.0 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 28 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Jan after | 33.2 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Jan after | 33.7 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 31 Jan after | 34.3 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Feb after | 32.6 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 28 |
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 · 319Every 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 Lainya fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 January 2023 and 22 January 2023: 8 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 8,836 hectares (88.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Lainya (8,633 ha, 2.4 %); Juba (266 ha, 0.0 %); Yei (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.