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SS · South Sudan · →

Manyo fire, November 2016 Manyo

Out · last detection 24 Nov 2016, 23:36 UTC

The fire started on 17 November 2016 in Manyo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,751 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 163th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 148 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
6,751ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
17 Nov 2016 – 23 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
17 Nov
2016
Heat detections
272
in a single hotspot: 79 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Nov23 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
45km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days 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.

What happened to each town

  1. Manyo where it started
    6,117 ha reached on 13 Nov
    0.9 %

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)
17 Nov 38.8 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Nov 38.5 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Nov 39.5 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Nov 38.9 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Nov 40.0 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Nov 40.0 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
23 Nov 38.1 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Nov after 38.1 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Nov after 36.4 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Nov after 37.1 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Nov after 38.0 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
28 Nov after 38.5 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Nov after 38.9 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
30 Nov after 38.6 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Dec after 38.3 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Dec after 37.1 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
3 Dec after 38.0 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Nov 2016
After · 30 Nov 2016

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 · 272Every 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 Manyo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 November 2016 and 23 November 2016: 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 6,751 hectares (67.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Manyo (6,117 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.