How long did the Luakpiny/Nasir fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 January 2016 to 22 February 2016 (43 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 January 2016 to 15 February 2016.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 29,817 hectares (298.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Luakpiny/Nasir (29,986 ha, 5.7 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 42.6 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, 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.

SS · South Sudan · 2016-01-11 → 2016-02-22

Luakpiny/Nasir fire, January 2016 Luakpiny/Nasir

Out · last detection 22 Feb 2016, 23:12 UTC

The fire started on 11 January 2016 in Luakpiny/Nasir, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 43 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 29,817 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 19th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 285 with a page). Number 16 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Luakpiny/Nasir · 2017 Ulang · 2022 Ulang · 2022 Ulang · 2025

Burnt area: 29,817ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 43days; 11 Jan 2016 – 22 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; counties
Started on: 11 Jan; 2016
Heat detections: 1,617; in a single hotspot: 98 MW
Danger at start: 58; Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power: 332MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jan22 Feb

Play back 22 Feb 2016

How it evolved, day by day

11 Jan 17 Jan 23 Jan 29 Jan 4 Feb 7 Feb 10 Feb 17 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

43°high

52km/h · peak gust

9%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 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.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 19% of the area of London (298 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Luakpiny/Nasir where it started

29,986 ha reached on 11 Jan

5.7 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015

Built-up area0.24 ha

Residents≈ 1,800

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.24 hectares of built-up land and about 1,800 residents (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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	Danger (FWI)
11 Jan	38.2 °C	16 %	36 km/h	Extreme 58
12 Jan	38.5 °C	19 %	32 km/h	Extreme 54
13 Jan	38.6 °C	16 %	39 km/h	Extreme 59
14 Jan	38.3 °C	15 %	44 km/h	Extreme 63
15 Jan	37.6 °C	18 %	44 km/h	Extreme 63
16 Jan	37.8 °C	19 %	37 km/h	Extreme 56
17 Jan	39.3 °C	16 %	36 km/h	Extreme 57
18 Jan	39.2 °C	12 %	37 km/h	Extreme 58
19 Jan	37.6 °C	11 %	48 km/h	Extreme 68
20 Jan	37.7 °C	11 %	42 km/h	Extreme 63
21 Jan	37.8 °C	15 %	37 km/h	Extreme 58
22 Jan	38.1 °C	17 %	36 km/h	Extreme 58
23 Jan	39.3 °C	14 %	39 km/h	Extreme 61
24 Jan	38.4 °C	15 %	46 km/h	Extreme 67
25 Jan	36.3 °C	14 %	52 km/h	Very extreme 72
26 Jan	35.6 °C	16 %	49 km/h	Extreme 68
27 Jan	33.8 °C	14 %	52 km/h	Very extreme 71
28 Jan	33.3 °C	13 %	48 km/h	Extreme 67
29 Jan	33.6 °C	11 %	49 km/h	Extreme 69
30 Jan	36.6 °C	12 %	43 km/h	Extreme 65
31 Jan	37.1 °C	13 %	45 km/h	Extreme 66
1 Feb	38.2 °C	12 %	44 km/h	Extreme 66
2 Feb	37.9 °C	12 %	47 km/h	Extreme 68
3 Feb	38.6 °C	14 %	44 km/h	Extreme 67
4 Feb	39.0 °C	13 %	41 km/h	Extreme 64
5 Feb	40.0 °C	13 %	41 km/h	Extreme 65
6 Feb	39.9 °C	12 %	48 km/h	Extreme 70
7 Feb	39.0 °C	13 %	51 km/h	Very extreme 73
8 Feb	38.5 °C	13 %	47 km/h	Extreme 70
9 Feb	39.8 °C	9 %	39 km/h	Extreme 64
10 Feb	38.6 °C	13 %	46 km/h	Extreme 70
11 Feb	39.2 °C	10 %	46 km/h	Very extreme 70
12 Feb	39.6 °C	11 %	41 km/h	Extreme 66
13 Feb	40.4 °C	12 %	46 km/h	Very extreme 71
14 Feb	41.0 °C	12 %	39 km/h	Extreme 65
15 Feb	41.5 °C	12 %	36 km/h	Extreme 63
16 Feb	40.9 °C	12 %	31 km/h	Extreme 60
17 Feb	40.9 °C	15 %	28 km/h	Extreme 54
18 Feb	41.9 °C	13 %	26 km/h	Extreme 56
19 Feb	42.6 °C	11 %	31 km/h	Extreme 58
20 Feb	41.6 °C	10 %	24 km/h	Extreme 54
21 Feb	41.5 °C	12 %	31 km/h	Extreme 58
22 Feb	40.3 °C	12 %	41 km/h	Extreme 68
23 Feb after	39.5 °C	11 %	47 km/h	Very extreme 74
24 Feb after	40.7 °C	9 %	46 km/h	Very extreme 74
25 Feb after	42.1 °C	9 %	38 km/h	Extreme 67
26 Feb after	42.6 °C	8 %	39 km/h	Extreme 68
27 Feb after	41.3 °C	14 %	23 km/h	Extreme 53
28 Feb after	40.7 °C	13 %	26 km/h	Extreme 55
29 Feb after	41.6 °C	18 %	34 km/h	Extreme 57
1 Mar after	40.4 °C	21 %	34 km/h	Extreme 53
2 Mar after	41.0 °C	21 %	37 km/h	Extreme 56
3 Mar after	41.1 °C	22 %	40 km/h	Extreme 58

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 Feb 2016

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.

Detections table · 1,617Every 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 Luakpiny/Nasir fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 January 2016 to 22 February 2016 (43 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 January 2016 to 15 February 2016.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 29,817 hectares (298.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Luakpiny/Nasir (29,986 ha, 5.7 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 42.6 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

26 October 2026 Last day with fire: 15 February 2016 → 22 February 2016.
26 October 2026 Start date: 17 January 2016 → 11 January 2016.

RSS Changes to this page

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

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 17 January 2016 to 15 February 2016. 1,617 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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