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Magwi fire, 29 December 2017 Magwi, Torit

Out · last detection 4 Jan 2018, 23:25 UTC

The fire started on 29 December 2017 in Magwi, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,555 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 62th largest in Eastern Equatoria since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 164 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
5,555ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
29 Dec 2017 – 4 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
29 Dec
2017
Heat detections
162
in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Dec4 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2930311234

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
38km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,788 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Magwi where it started
    5,577 ha reached on 28 Dec
    1.1 %
  2. Torit
    14 ha reached on 29 Dec
    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)
29 Dec 34.0 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Dec 33.8 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Dec 33.1 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Jan 31.8 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Jan 30.9 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Jan 30.6 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Jan 30.7 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Jan after 30.3 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Jan after 30.8 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Jan after 31.4 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Jan after 30.8 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Jan after 31.5 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Jan after 32.3 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Jan after 33.2 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Jan after 31.2 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Jan after 33.5 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Jan after 34.1 °C 23 % 31 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 · 22 Dec 2017
After · 11 Jan 2018

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 · 162Every 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 29 December 2017 and 4 January 2018: 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 5,555 hectares (55.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Magwi (5,577 ha, 1.1 %); Torit (14 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.