How long did the Malakal fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 December 2025 and 23 December 2025: 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 8,619 hectares (86.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Fashoda (3,810 ha, 1.0 %); Malakal (3,188 ha, 4.2 %); Panyikang (1,678 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.

SS · South Sudan · 2025-12-12 → 2025-12-23

Malakal fire, 12 December 2025 Fashoda, Malakal, Panyikang

Out · last detection 23 Dec 2025, 11:31 UTC

The fire started on 12 December 2025 in Malakal, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,619 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 106th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 140 in South Sudan in 2025, of 292.

Burnt area: 8,619ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 12days; 12 Dec 2025 – 23 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit: 3; counties
Started on: 12 Dec; 2025
Heat detections: 197; in a single hotspot: 108 MW
Danger at start: 50; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 3.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Dec 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Dec23 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1213151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

43km/h · peak gust

14%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,881 ha in 2016, 1,536 ha in 2017, 511 ha in 2018, 3,110 ha in 2019, 3,579 ha in 2020, 5,225 ha in 2021, 4,503 ha in 2022, 553 ha in 2023, 3,757 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,348 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Fashoda

3,810 ha reached on 16 Dec

1.0 %
Malakal where it started

3,188 ha reached on 12 Dec

4.2 %
Panyikang

1,678 ha reached on 16 Dec

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	Danger (FWI)
12 Dec	34.5 °C	17 %	40 km/h	Very high 50
13 Dec	34.6 °C	20 %	38 km/h	Very high 49
14 Dec	34.4 °C	23 %	38 km/h	Very high 47
15 Dec	33.2 °C	17 %	43 km/h	Extreme 52
16 Dec	32.1 °C	14 %	41 km/h	Extreme 51
17 Dec	32.9 °C	16 %	40 km/h	Extreme 50
18 Dec	32.1 °C	14 %	42 km/h	Extreme 53
19 Dec	34.4 °C	18 %	38 km/h	Extreme 51
20 Dec	33.7 °C	17 %	36 km/h	Very high 49
21 Dec	34.0 °C	16 %	34 km/h	Very high 48
22 Dec	34.3 °C	15 %	33 km/h	Very high 48
23 Dec	34.5 °C	16 %	31 km/h	Very high 46
24 Dec after	35.9 °C	19 %	33 km/h	Very high 47
25 Dec after	36.8 °C	18 %	28 km/h	Very high 45
26 Dec after	36.4 °C	19 %	32 km/h	Very high 48
27 Dec after	35.9 °C	20 %	36 km/h	Extreme 52
28 Dec after	35.1 °C	15 %	40 km/h	Extreme 55
29 Dec after	35.1 °C	11 %	37 km/h	Extreme 54
30 Dec after	33.8 °C	11 %	45 km/h	Extreme 60
31 Dec after	32.9 °C	12 %	39 km/h	Extreme 56
1 Jan after	35.1 °C	13 %	34 km/h	Extreme 53
2 Jan after	35.2 °C	14 %	29 km/h	Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 5 Dec 2025

After · 30 Dec 2025

Before After

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 13 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 84 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak84 µg/m³

Days over the guideline15 days

PM10130 µg/m³

Optical depth0.37

WHO 15

1011121314151617181920212223242526

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 · 197Every 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

All fires in South Sudan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Malakal fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 December 2025 and 23 December 2025: 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 8,619 hectares (86.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Fashoda (3,810 ha, 1.0 %); Malakal (3,188 ha, 4.2 %); Panyikang (1,678 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned