Manyo fire, 17 November 2025 Manyo
The fire started on 17 November 2025 in Manyo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,583 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 62th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 94 in South Sudan in 2025, of 292.
- Burnt area
- 11,583ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 17 Nov 2025 – 20 Nov 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 17 Nov
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 238
- in a single hotspot: 244 MW
- Danger at start
- 51
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.5GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,069 ha in 2016, 814 ha in 2017, 857 ha in 2018, 1,075 ha in 2019, 2,895 ha in 2020, 7,261 ha in 2021, 2,851 ha in 2022, 934 ha in 2023, 2,223 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,430 ha that had burned before.
- 2,671 ha Manyo fire, February 2021 7,135 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,463 ha Manyo fire, March 2022 6,798 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 314 ha Manyo fire, November 2020 7,172 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 78 ha Manyo fire, December 2024 5,615 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 75 ha Manyo fire, November 2020 5,624 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Manyo where it started11,671 ha reached on 17 Nov1.7 %
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 | 37.2 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 18 Nov | 37.8 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 19 Nov | 38.3 °C | 16 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 20 Nov | 37.5 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 21 Nov after | 38.6 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 22 Nov after | 38.7 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 23 Nov after | 39.1 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Nov after | 39.6 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 25 Nov after | 38.5 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 26 Nov after | 37.1 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 27 Nov after | 37.3 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 28 Nov after | 37.3 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 29 Nov after | 38.8 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 30 Nov after | 38.5 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 23 November 2025 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 238Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,135 haManyoFebruary 2021 · 4 days · 5 km away
- 6,798 haManyoMarch 2022 · 4 days · 7 km away
- 7,172 haManyo11 November 2020 · 7 days · 12 km away
- 5,624 haManyo13 November 2020 · 4 days · 13 km away
- 6,639 haManyo5 November 2020 · 6 days · 18 km away
- 7,093 haAbu Jubayhah28 December 2021 · 8 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Manyo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 November 2025 and 20 November 2025: 4 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 11,583 hectares (115.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Manyo (11,671 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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
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.