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Maridi fire, 13 December 2016 Maridi, Mvolo

Out · last detection 23 Dec 2016, 22:53 UTC

The fire started on 13 December 2016 in Maridi, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,336 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 96th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 51 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
13,336ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
13 Dec 2016 – 22 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
13 Dec
2016
Heat detections
581
in a single hotspot: 301 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Average daily power
623MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

23 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Dec22 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

13 Dec 2016 · 464 MW · 37 14 Dec 2016 · 51 MW · 7 15 Dec 2016 · 152 MW · 37 16 Dec 2016 · 368 MW · 64 17 Dec 2016 · 3,051 MW · 110 18 Dec 2016 · 110 MW · 18 19 Dec 2016 · 1,765 MW · 92 20 Dec 2016 · 435 MW · 68 21 Dec 2016 · 100 MW · 14 22 Dec 2016 · 342 MW · 17 23 Dec 2016 · 19 MW · 5
13 Dec 15 Dec 17 Dec 19 Dec 21 Dec 23 Dec

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
41km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 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
    13,338 ha reached on 13 Dec
    1.7 %
  2. Mvolo
    96 ha reached on 22 Dec
    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)
13 Dec 34.6 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 Dec 32.9 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 21
15 Dec 30.9 °C 49 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 17
16 Dec 32.7 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
17 Dec 34.5 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Dec 34.2 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
19 Dec 35.0 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Dec 35.2 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Dec 35.0 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Dec 34.9 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Dec after 35.8 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Dec after 36.2 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Dec after 36.2 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Dec after 34.6 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Dec after 34.7 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Dec after 35.1 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Dec after 36.4 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Dec after 36.3 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Dec after 36.8 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Jan after 36.5 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Dec 2016
After · 29 Dec 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 · 581Every 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 13 December 2016 and 22 December 2016: 10 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 13,336 hectares (133.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maridi (13,338 ha, 1.7 %); Mvolo (96 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.