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SS · South Sudan · →

Magwi fire, January 2026 Magwi, Torit

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2026, 11:36 UTC

The fire started on 1 January 2026 in Magwi, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,327 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 24th largest in Eastern Equatoria since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 53 in South Sudan in 2026, of 183.

Burnt area
9,327ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
1 Jan 2026 – 12 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
1 Jan
2026
Heat detections
289
in a single hotspot: 102 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jan 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Jan12 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

12345678910111213

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
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 52 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 560 ha in 2016, 374 ha in 2017, 1,486 ha in 2020, 1,510 ha in 2021, 789 ha in 2023, 2,493 ha in 2024, 568 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,595 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Magwi where it started
    7,027 ha reached on 30 Dec
    1.3 %
  2. Torit
    2,363 ha reached on 31 Dec
    0.4 %

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)
1 Jan 33.8 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Jan 34.2 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Jan 34.5 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Jan 33.5 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Jan 34.4 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Jan 35.2 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Jan 36.4 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Jan 35.5 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Jan 36.1 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Jan 35.1 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jan 34.7 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Jan 34.3 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Jan after 35.5 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Jan after 35.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Jan after 35.8 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Jan after 34.1 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Jan after 34.7 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Jan after 35.3 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Jan after 34.0 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Jan after 36.0 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Jan after 36.8 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jan after 37.6 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Dec 2025
After · 19 Jan 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 6 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 119 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 78: 5.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak119 µg/m³
Days over the guideline13 days
PM10124 µg/m³
Optical depth1.25
3031123456789101112131415
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 289Every 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 1 January 2026 and 12 January 2026: 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 9,327 hectares (93.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Magwi (7,027 ha, 1.3 %); Torit (2,363 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 37 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.

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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.