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Luakpiny/Nasir fire, January 2017 Luakpiny/Nasir, Maiwut

Out · last detection 13 Feb 2017, 10:41 UTC

The fire started on 16 January 2017 in Luakpiny/Nasir, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 34,778 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 285 with a page). Number 5 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Luakpiny/Nasir · 2016Wantawo · 2016Jikawo · 2016Ulang · 2022

Burnt area
34,778ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
29days
16 Jan 2017 – 13 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
16 Jan
2017
Heat detections
2,211
in a single hotspot: 380 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
1.2GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jan13 Feb
13 Feb 2017

How it evolved, day by day

16 Jan 2017 · 246 MW · 24 17 Jan 2017 · 104 MW · 12 18 Jan 2017 · 377 MW · 13 19 Jan 2017 · 856 MW · 44 20 Jan 2017 · 809 MW · 33 21 Jan 2017 · 778 MW · 38 22 Jan 2017 · 683 MW · 31 23 Jan 2017 · 445 MW · 65 24 Jan 2017 · 2,036 MW · 157 25 Jan 2017 · 1,995 MW · 120 26 Jan 2017 · 3,460 MW · 154 27 Jan 2017 · 1,201 MW · 89 28 Jan 2017 · 2,715 MW · 203 29 Jan 2017 · 1,541 MW · 135 30 Jan 2017 · 823 MW · 54 31 Jan 2017 · 1,963 MW · 99 1 Feb 2017 · 4,016 MW · 204 2 Feb 2017 · 1,666 MW · 184 3 Feb 2017 · 1,413 MW · 160 4 Feb 2017 · 344 MW · 45 5 Feb 2017 · 426 MW · 44 6 Feb 2017 · 387 MW · 42 7 Feb 2017 · 14 MW · 3 8 Feb 2017 · 518 MW · 52 9 Feb 2017 · 2,215 MW · 113 10 Feb 2017 · 3,558 MW · 68 11 Feb 2017 · 75 MW · 10 12 Feb 2017 · 134 MW · 14 13 Feb 2017 · 8 MW · 1
16 Jan 21 Jan 26 Jan 31 Jan 1 Feb 5 Feb 10 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

42°high
49km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

46% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19,870 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,980 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 22% of the area of London (348 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

  1. Luakpiny/Nasir where it started
    28,439 ha reached on 16 Jan
    5.4 %
  2. Maiwut
    0 ha reached on 16 Jan
    0.0 %

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 area0.42 ha
Residents≈ 2,600

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.42 hectares of built-up land and about 2,600 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 Rain Danger (FWI)
16 Jan 39.7 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Jan 38.9 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Jan 39.5 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Jan 40.0 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Jan 39.0 °C 11 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Jan 40.3 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Jan 40.0 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Jan 40.1 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Jan 40.1 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Jan 39.9 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Jan 39.5 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 Jan 40.3 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Jan 40.3 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
29 Jan 39.4 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
30 Jan 38.9 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
31 Jan 40.0 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
1 Feb 38.9 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
2 Feb 37.7 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
3 Feb 38.2 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
4 Feb 38.8 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
5 Feb 39.2 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
6 Feb 40.2 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
7 Feb 39.7 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
8 Feb 40.7 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Feb 40.1 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Feb 41.7 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Feb 40.7 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Feb 40.9 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Feb 40.0 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Feb after 34.3 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 54
15 Feb after 38.7 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
16 Feb after 39.6 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
17 Feb after 37.0 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
18 Feb after 35.7 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
19 Feb after 37.8 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Feb after 39.4 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Feb after 38.0 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Feb after 39.7 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Feb after 38.0 °C 5 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jan 2017
After · 20 Feb 2017

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 · 2,211Every 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 Luakpiny/Nasir fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 January 2017 to 13 February 2017 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 January 2017 to 6 February 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 34,778 hectares (347.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luakpiny/Nasir (28,439 ha, 5.4 %); Maiwut (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 71, 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

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 6 February 2017 → 13 February 2017.
  2. Start date: 23 January 2017 → 16 January 2017.

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.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 23 January 2017 to 6 February 2017. 2,211 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.