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Magwi fire, January 2017 Magwi, Torit

Out · last detection 18 Jan 2017, 23:06 UTC

The fire started on 12 January 2017 in Magwi, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,239 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 48th largest in Eastern Equatoria since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 127 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
6,239ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
12 Jan 2017 – 18 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
12 Jan
2017
Heat detections
192
in a single hotspot: 74 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jan18 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
36km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,409 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Magwi where it started
    4,433 ha reached on 5 Jan
    0.8 %
  2. Torit
    1,847 ha reached on 6 Jan
    0.3 %

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)
12 Jan 32.8 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Jan 33.0 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Jan 33.5 °C 13 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Jan 33.8 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Jan 34.5 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Jan 34.2 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Jan 33.5 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Jan after 33.7 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Jan after 33.9 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Jan after 33.5 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jan after 34.9 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Jan after 34.7 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Jan after 33.7 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Jan after 33.5 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Jan after 32.9 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jan after 33.0 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Jan after 32.0 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jan 2017
After · 25 Jan 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 · 192Every 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 Magwi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 January 2017 and 18 January 2017: 7 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 6,239 hectares (62.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Magwi (4,433 ha, 0.8 %); Torit (1,847 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.

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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.