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Maridi fire, December 2020 Maridi, Mvolo

Out · last detection 21 Dec 2020, 10:58 UTC

The fire started on 16 December 2020 in Maridi, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,891 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 280th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 149 in South Sudan in 2020, of 190.

Burnt area
5,891ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
16 Dec 2020 – 21 Dec 2020
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
16 Dec
2020
Heat detections
184
in a single hotspot: 94 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Dec 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Dec21 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021

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
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,717 ha in 2016, 3,592 ha in 2017, 2,051 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,065 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Maridi where it started
    5,599 ha reached on 13 Dec
    0.7 %
  2. Mvolo
    335 ha reached on 13 Dec
    0.1 %

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)
16 Dec 36.3 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Dec 35.5 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Dec 35.1 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Dec 35.0 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Dec 35.9 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Dec 35.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Dec after 33.3 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Dec after 35.4 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Dec after 36.5 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Dec after 36.1 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Dec after 36.7 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Dec after 36.4 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Dec after 36.4 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Dec after 35.5 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Dec after 36.1 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Dec after 36.2 °C 17 % 32 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 · 9 Dec 2020
After · 28 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 · 184Every 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 16 December 2020 and 21 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 5,891 hectares (58.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maridi (5,599 ha, 0.7 %); Mvolo (335 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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.