Burned area
satellite only25,408ha
Union of 3 GWIS (Copernicus) perimeters: overlapping areas count once.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 2 Feb 2021 – 15 Feb 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
SS · South Sudan · –
Luakpiny/Nasir fire, February 2021 Maiwut, Luakpiny/Nasir
Out · last detection 16 Feb 2021, 11:31 UTC
The fire started on 2 February 2021 in Luakpiny/Nasir, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,408 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 19th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 238 with a page). Number 11 in South Sudan in 2021, of 212.
Use this data
Compare with…
Suggestions: Jore · 2025Gidami · 2023Maiwut · 2024Maiwut · 2026
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-27matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only14days
2 Feb 2021 to 15 Feb 2021: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 16 Feb 2021, 11:31 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only2 Feb 2021
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 2 Feb 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
The worst day
satellite only2,086MW
Total radiative power on 6 February 2021; hotspots that day: 162.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 6 Feb 2021
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model49.7FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 2 Feb 2021, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model41.1°C · 10% RH
High of 41.1 °C and minimum humidity of 10% on 15 February 2021; gusts of 53 km/h on 5 February 2021.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 2 Feb 2021 – 15 Feb 2021
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 400people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 0.13 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 28 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
logLast day with fire: 22 February 2021 → 15 February 2021.
-
logStart date: 26 January 2021 → 2 February 2021.
-
logName: Maiwut → Luakpiny/Nasir.
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 15 February 2021 → 22 February 2021.
-
logStart date: 2 February 2021 → 26 January 2021.
Area logged each night
Move the slider to see which area the page published each day.
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/luakpiny-nasir-2021-02?v=2026-10-27A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire luakpiny-nasir-2021-02.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-02-02 | 16 | 149 | 39.3 | 26.8 | 13 | 11.2 | 27.7 | 0 | 49.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-03 | 21 | 116 | 39.7 | 24.8 | 15 | 9 | 26.6 | 0 | 47.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-04 | 108 | 841 | 39.9 | 25.3 | 13 | 10.8 | 29.2 | 0 | 49.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-05 | 212 | 1,887 | 38.8 | 27.1 | 10 | 26.3 | 52.9 | 0 | 72.1 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-02-06 | 162 | 2,086 | 37.4 | 24.1 | 8 | 25 | 46.8 | 0 | 71.3 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-02-07 | 94 | 625 | 37.1 | 23.1 | 9 | 20.3 | 41.4 | 0 | 64.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-02-08 | 57 | 376 | 37.8 | 24 | 9 | 16.4 | 34.9 | 0 | 59.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-02-09 | 60 | 524 | 38.6 | 25.8 | 13 | 15.7 | 33.8 | 0 | 58.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-02-10 | 74 | 756 | 40.3 | 24.1 | 12 | 11.4 | 28.4 | 0 | 53.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-02-11 | 102 | 1,501 | 40.4 | 25.9 | 10 | 15.2 | 34.2 | 0 | 58.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-02-12 | 54 | 763 | 40.4 | 25.3 | 10 | 9.4 | 22 | 0 | 51.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-02-13 | 25 | 350 | 40.9 | 25.7 | 8 | 13.1 | 31.7 | 0 | 57.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-02-14 | 76 | 684 | 41 | 26.9 | 9 | 13.3 | 30.6 | 0 | 57.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-02-15 | 51 | 490 | 41.1 | 25.2 | 10 | 8.9 | 27 | 0 | 52.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-02-16 | 32 | 198 | 41 | 27.7 | 10 | 8 | 23.8 | 0 | 51.8 | extremo | 0 |
| 2021-02-17 | 0 | 0 | 39.7 | 27.4 | 11 | 25.7 | 47.9 | 0 | 77.2 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2021-02-18 | 0 | 0 | 37.2 | 24.6 | 12 | 27.6 | 53.3 | 0 | 78.9 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2021-02-19 | 0 | 0 | 36.8 | 23.6 | 11 | 24.1 | 48.2 | 0 | 73.4 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2021-02-20 | 0 | 0 | 37.4 | 24.4 | 11 | 20.6 | 42.1 | 0 | 68.2 | extremo | 0 |
| 2021-02-21 | 0 | 0 | 38.2 | 25.2 | 12 | 20.1 | 41.4 | 0 | 67.6 | extremo | 0 |
| 2021-02-22 | 0 | 0 | 39.5 | 26.3 | 11 | 18.1 | 33.8 | 0 | 64.9 | extremo | 0 |
| 2021-02-23 | 0 | 0 | 39.3 | 26.8 | 10 | 14 | 29.5 | 0 | 59.5 | extremo | 0 |
| 2021-02-24 | 0 | 0 | 39.9 | 27.2 | 10 | 23.9 | 47.9 | 0 | 74.4 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2021-02-25 | 0 | 0 | 39.4 | 26.1 | 11 | 22.1 | 45 | 0 | 71.8 | muy_extremo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 25,408ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 2 Feb 2021 – 15 Feb 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 2 Feb
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 1,144
- in a single hotspot: 0 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 756MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
2 Feb15 Feb
16 Feb 2021
How it evolved, day by day
2 Feb
6 Feb
11 Feb
14 Feb
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
41°high
53km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months 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.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
17,678 ha4.8 %
-
Luakpiny/Nasir where it started7,882 ha1.5 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area0.13 ha
Residents≈ 400
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.13 hectares of built-up land and about 400 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with Very dry air: 33 % of the area in South Sudan 60 days without rain: 13 % of the area in South Sudan
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Feb | 39.3 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 3 Feb | 39.7 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 Feb | 39.9 °C | 13 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 5 Feb | 38.8 °C | 10 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 6 Feb | 37.4 °C | 8 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 7 Feb | 37.1 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 8 Feb | 37.8 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 9 Feb | 38.6 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 10 Feb | 40.3 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 11 Feb | 40.4 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 12 Feb | 40.4 °C | 10 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 13 Feb | 40.9 °C | 8 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 14 Feb | 41.0 °C | 9 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 15 Feb | 41.1 °C | 10 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 16 Feb after | 41.0 °C | 10 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 17 Feb after | 39.7 °C | 11 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 77 |
| 18 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 12 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 79 |
| 19 Feb after | 36.8 °C | 11 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 20 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 21 Feb after | 38.2 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 22 Feb after | 39.5 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 23 Feb after | 39.3 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 24 Feb after | 39.9 °C | 10 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 25 Feb after | 39.4 °C | 11 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 49.7, a minimum humidity of 13% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 26.
FWI at the start
49.7
Minimum humidity
13 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Luakpiny/Nasir fire, February 2021
25,408 ha
14 days
FWI 49.7
Min. humidity 13 %
Jore fire, March 2025
2,095 ha
5 days
FWI 51.2
Min. humidity 13 %
53 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Gidami fire, February 2023
2,081 ha
5 days
FWI 48.6
Min. humidity 13 %
82 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Jore fire, January 2017
6,445 ha
4 days
FWI 51.6
Min. humidity 13 %
48 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Jore fire, March 2021
2,027 ha
7 days
FWI 50.3
Min. humidity 14 %
58 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Jikawo fire, January 2023
2,076 ha
10 days
FWI 52.7
Min. humidity 13 %
12 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 10 days
- median duration
- 2,540 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.1 mm
- rain at the end (median; 6 of 26 had it)
It was 10.0 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 14 days, against 10 days.
Only 1 of its 26 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 20 of 26, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.1 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
53km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 15 Feb, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 6 of 26, with a median of 2.1 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 26 Jan 2021
After · 22 Feb 2021
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 0Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,640 haMaiwutFebruary 2024 · 39 days · 13 km away
- 164,351 haMaiwut14 January 2026 · 66 days · 15 km away
- 17,318 haWantawoFebruary 2026 · 48 days · 16 km away
- 34,755 haLuakpiny/NasirJanuary 2017 · 29 days · 27 km away
- 25,196 haJikawo17 February 2025 · 36 days · 36 km away
- 47,813 haJikawo2 February 2026 · 43 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Luakpiny/Nasir fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 February 2021 and 15 February 2021: 14 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 25,408 hectares (254.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maiwut (17,678 ha, 4.8 %); Luakpiny/Nasir (7,882 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very extreme.
- 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 26. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 2,540 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 1 of its 26 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 20 of 26, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.1 mm.
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
History of this page · 5 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 22 February 2021 → 15 February 2021.
- Start date: 26 January 2021 → 2 February 2021.
- Name: Maiwut → Luakpiny/Nasir.
- Last day with fire: 15 February 2021 → 22 February 2021.
- Start date: 2 February 2021 → 26 January 2021.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.