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Malakal fire, November 2019 Malakal, Fashoda, Panyikang

Out · last detection 17 Dec 2019, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 29 November 2019 in Malakal, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,311 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 22 in South Sudan in 2019, of 150.

Burnt area
22,311ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
29 Nov 2019 – 16 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
29 Nov
2019
Heat detections
695
in a single hotspot: 133 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
9.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Dec 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Nov16 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

29301234567891011121314151617

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
44km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,557 ha in 2016, 9,615 ha in 2017, 1,354 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,492 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Malakal where it started
    10,245 ha reached on 28 Nov
    13 %
  2. Fashoda
    9,435 ha reached on 28 Nov
    2.6 %
  3. Panyikang
    2,770 ha reached on 6 Dec
    0.6 %

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 Nov 36.5 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Nov 35.6 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Dec 35.8 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Dec 35.6 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
3 Dec 36.4 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Dec 36.0 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Dec 35.4 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Dec 35.9 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Dec 35.8 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Dec 35.9 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Dec 34.9 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Dec 35.3 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Dec 35.4 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Dec 36.4 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Dec 36.0 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Dec 35.9 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Dec 35.9 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Dec 34.9 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Dec after 34.1 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Dec after 34.6 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Dec after 35.4 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Dec after 35.3 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Dec after 36.0 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Dec after 36.3 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Dec after 36.0 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Dec after 36.4 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Dec after 36.1 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Dec after 34.6 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Nov 2019
After · 23 Dec 2019

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 · 695Every 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 Malakal fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 November 2019 and 16 December 2019: 18 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 22,311 hectares (223.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Malakal (10,245 ha, 13 %); Fashoda (9,435 ha, 2.6 %); Panyikang (2,770 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class 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.

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.