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Maridi fire, January 2016 Maridi, Mundri West

Out · last detection 18 Jan 2016, 11:32 UTC

The fire started on 4 January 2016 in Maridi, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 24,195 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 47th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 20 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
24,195ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
4 Jan 2016 – 17 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
4 Jan
2016
Heat detections
977
in a single hotspot: 151 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
8.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jan17 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

456789101112131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
42km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 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. Maridi where it started
    24,205 ha reached on 1 Jan
    3.1 %
  2. Mundri West
    139 ha reached on 3 Jan
    0.0 %

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)
4 Jan 34.0 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Jan 34.3 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Jan 33.2 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Jan 36.3 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Jan 36.2 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Jan 35.7 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Jan 36.0 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Jan 36.0 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Jan 36.0 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Jan 34.8 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Jan 35.5 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Jan 35.0 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Jan 34.5 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Jan 34.7 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Jan after 36.2 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Jan after 35.5 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Jan after 34.8 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Jan after 34.8 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Jan after 34.1 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
23 Jan after 36.2 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Jan after 35.3 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Jan after 33.7 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Jan after 32.8 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Jan after 31.3 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Dec 2015
After · 24 Jan 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 · 977Every 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 Maridi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 January 2016 and 17 January 2016: 14 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 24,195 hectares (242.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maridi (24,205 ha, 3.1 %); Mundri West (139 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
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.