Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Manyo fire, December 2020 Manyo, Fashoda

Out · last detection 10 Dec 2020, 11:06 UTC

The fire started on 5 December 2020 in Manyo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,935 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 156th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 109 in South Sudan in 2020, of 190.

Burnt area
6,935ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
5 Dec 2020 – 10 Dec 2020
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
5 Dec
2020
Heat detections
208
in a single hotspot: 188 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Dec 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Dec10 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

5678910

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
44km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 34 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 956 ha in 2016, 1,154 ha in 2017, 188 ha in 2018, 5,207 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,381 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Manyo where it started
    5,768 ha reached on 5 Dec
    0.9 %
  2. Fashoda
    1,043 ha reached on 6 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 Rain Danger (FWI)
5 Dec 36.5 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Dec 36.8 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
7 Dec 37.7 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
8 Dec 37.4 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
9 Dec 37.4 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Dec 37.8 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Dec after 38.2 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Dec after 38.5 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Dec after 38.2 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Dec after 37.4 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Dec after 37.2 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
16 Dec after 36.9 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
17 Dec after 35.4 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
18 Dec after 35.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Dec after 35.8 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Dec after 36.2 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Nov 2020
After · 17 Dec 2020

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 · 208Every 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 5 December 2020 and 10 December 2020: 6 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 6,935 hectares (69.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Manyo (5,768 ha, 0.9 %); Fashoda (1,043 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.