Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Manyo fire, November 2019 Manyo

Out · last detection 8 Dec 2019, 11:06 UTC

The fire started on 27 November 2019 in Manyo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,934 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 43th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 31 in South Sudan in 2019, of 150.

Burnt area
13,934ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
27 Nov 2019 – 8 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
27 Nov
2019
Heat detections
411
in a single hotspot: 89 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Dec 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Nov8 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

272829301234568

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
44km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,038 ha in 2016, 1,773 ha in 2017, 1,016 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Manyo where it started
    13,994 ha reached on 27 Nov
    2.1 %

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)
27 Nov 37.1 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Nov 37.4 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Nov 36.5 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Nov 35.8 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Dec 36.1 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Dec 36.1 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Dec 36.5 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Dec 35.9 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Dec 35.5 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Dec 35.8 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Dec 35.8 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Dec 35.8 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Dec after 34.9 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Dec after 35.3 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Dec after 35.9 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Dec after 36.4 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Dec after 35.8 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Dec after 36.0 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Dec after 36.1 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Dec after 34.3 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Dec after 33.7 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Dec after 34.2 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Nov 2019
After · 15 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 · 411Every 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 27 November 2019 and 8 December 2019: 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 13,934 hectares (139.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Manyo (13,994 ha, 2.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.