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Leer fire, March 2019 Leer, Panyijiar

Out · last detection 18 Mar 2019, 10:34 UTC

The fire started on 6 March 2019 in Leer, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,361 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 17th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 44 in South Sudan in 2019, of 150.

Burnt area
11,361ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
6 Mar 2019 – 17 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
6 Mar
2019
Heat detections
324
in a single hotspot: 97 MW
Danger at start
67
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Mar17 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121415161718

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
44km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.7 mm on 25 Mar.

This area had burned before

61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 912 ha in 2016, 5,861 ha in 2017, 4,418 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,882 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Leer where it started
    7,756 ha reached on 6 Mar
    4.7 %
  2. Panyijiar
    3,678 ha reached on 6 Mar
    0.7 %

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)
6 Mar 40.8 °C 8 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
7 Mar 39.2 °C 6 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
8 Mar 39.8 °C 8 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
9 Mar 40.2 °C 7 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
10 Mar 40.2 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Mar 41.0 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
12 Mar 41.8 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
13 Mar 39.1 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Mar 41.7 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Mar 41.2 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
16 Mar 40.5 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
17 Mar 40.2 °C 5 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
18 Mar after 40.9 °C 7 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
19 Mar after 40.5 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
20 Mar after 41.4 °C 6 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Mar after 42.9 °C 7 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
22 Mar after 42.5 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
23 Mar after 42.1 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Mar after 42.8 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
25 Mar after 35.2 °C 23 % 50 km/h 3.7 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Feb 2019
After · 24 Mar 2019

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 · 324Every 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 Leer fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 March 2019 and 17 March 2019: 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 11,361 hectares (113.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Leer (7,756 ha, 4.7 %); Panyijiar (3,678 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.8 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, class 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.

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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.