How long did the Lainya fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 December 2025 and 10 January 2026: 11 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 5,453 hectares (54.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lainya (4,976 ha, 1.4 %); Juba (513 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 44 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.

SS · South Sudan · 2025-12-31 → 2026-01-10

Lainya fire, December 2025 Lainya, Juba

Out · last detection 11 Jan 2026, 12:13 UTC

The fire started on 31 December 2025 in Lainya, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,453 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 74th largest in Central Equatoria since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 260 in South Sudan in 2025, of 292.

Burnt area: 5,453ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 11days; 31 Dec 2025 – 10 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; counties
Started on: 31 Dec; 2025
Heat detections: 137; in a single hotspot: 46 MW
Danger at start: 24; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 11 Jan 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Dec10 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

12345678911

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

44km/h · peak gust

18%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

19% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 309 ha in 2016, 276 ha in 2017, 500 ha in 2018, 71 ha in 2020, 63 ha in 2021, 187 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,010 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Lainya where it started

4,976 ha reached on 1 Jan

1.4 %
Juba

513 ha reached on 1 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)
31 Dec	29.8 °C	26 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
1 Jan	32.6 °C	25 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
2 Jan	32.1 °C	38 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
3 Jan	33.7 °C	27 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
4 Jan	33.8 °C	25 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
5 Jan	33.9 °C	22 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
6 Jan	34.0 °C	23 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
7 Jan	34.8 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
8 Jan	34.3 °C	18 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
9 Jan	34.0 °C	20 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
10 Jan	33.7 °C	22 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
11 Jan after	32.6 °C	26 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
12 Jan after	33.4 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
13 Jan after	34.1 °C	22 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
14 Jan after	33.9 °C	22 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
15 Jan after	33.8 °C	20 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
16 Jan after	32.8 °C	24 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
17 Jan after	33.4 °C	20 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
18 Jan after	34.2 °C	20 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
19 Jan after	34.2 °C	23 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
20 Jan after	34.6 °C	29 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 24 Dec 2025

After · 17 Jan 2026

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 6 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 88 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 2.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak88 µg/m³

Days over the guideline15 days

PM1091 µg/m³

Optical depth0.75

WHO 15

29303112345678910111213

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 137Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in South Sudan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lainya fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 December 2025 and 10 January 2026: 11 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 5,453 hectares (54.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lainya (4,976 ha, 1.4 %); Juba (513 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 44 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned