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Maban fire, November 2020 Maban, Longochuk

Out · last detection 6 Dec 2020, 10:41 UTC

The fire started on 24 November 2020 in Maban, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,359 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 179th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 131 in South Sudan in 2020, of 190.

Burnt area
6,359ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
24 Nov 2020 – 5 Dec 2020
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
24 Nov
2020
Heat detections
178
in a single hotspot: 177 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Dec 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Nov5 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

24252627282930123456

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
37km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,920 ha in 2016, 1,594 ha in 2017, 2,882 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,948 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Maban where it started
    5,539 ha reached on 24 Nov
    0.5 %
  2. Longochuk
    188 ha reached on 27 Nov
    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)
24 Nov 35.2 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
25 Nov 34.8 °C 23 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
26 Nov 34.9 °C 24 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 Nov 35.3 °C 23 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Nov 35.6 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Nov 34.1 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Nov 33.4 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Dec 34.3 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Dec 35.4 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Dec 34.7 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Dec 35.3 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Dec 35.5 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Dec after 36.3 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Dec after 36.5 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Dec after 34.9 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Dec after 34.3 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Dec after 34.7 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Dec after 36.0 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Dec after 35.9 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Dec after 35.8 °C 21 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Dec after 35.9 °C 21 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Dec after 36.1 °C 17 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Nov 2020
After · 12 Dec 2020

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 · 178Every 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 24 November 2020 and 5 December 2020: 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 6,359 hectares (63.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maban (5,539 ha, 0.5 %); Longochuk (188 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.

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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.