Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Maban fire, 25 November 2016 Maban

Out · last detection 30 Nov 2016, 10:48 UTC

The fire started on 25 November 2016 in Maban, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,228 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 113th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 99 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
8,228ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
25 Nov 2016 – 30 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
25 Nov
2016
Heat detections
185
in a single hotspot: 86 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Nov30 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
31km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 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.

What happened to each town

  1. Maban where it started
    8,272 ha reached on 25 Nov
    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)
25 Nov 36.3 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Nov 36.5 °C 15 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Nov 37.3 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Nov 38.0 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Nov 37.9 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Nov 36.5 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Dec after 36.8 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Dec after 34.6 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Dec after 36.5 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Dec after 37.5 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Dec after 37.2 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Dec after 37.7 °C 16 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Dec after 37.9 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Dec after 38.1 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Dec after 37.7 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
10 Dec after 37.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Nov 2016
After · 7 Dec 2016

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 · 185Every 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 Maban fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 November 2016 and 30 November 2016: 6 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 8,228 hectares (82.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Maban (8,272 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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

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.