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Mayendit fire, March 2017 Mayendit, Leer

Out · last detection 24 Mar 2017, 11:49 UTC

The fire started on 16 March 2017 in Mayendit, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,225 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 34th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 100 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
7,225ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
16 Mar 2017 – 24 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
16 Mar
2017
Heat detections
192
in a single hotspot: 42 MW
Danger at start
65
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Mar24 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
50km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,271 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mayendit where it started
    6,715 ha reached on 16 Mar
    2.2 %
  2. Leer
    555 ha reached on 24 Mar
    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)
16 Mar 36.1 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 65
17 Mar 36.9 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 44
18 Mar 40.8 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Mar 41.0 °C 17 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Mar 40.2 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Mar 40.2 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
22 Mar 39.9 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
23 Mar 39.6 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Mar 39.4 °C 24 % 42 km/h 1.7 mm Very high 41
25 Mar after 38.5 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Mar after 38.0 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Mar after 41.2 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 Mar after 39.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Mar after 39.8 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Mar after 38.8 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 53
31 Mar after 38.2 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Apr after 41.0 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Apr after 41.5 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Apr after 41.2 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Mar 2017
After · 31 Mar 2017

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 · 192Every 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 Mayendit fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 March 2017 and 24 March 2017: 9 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 7,225 hectares (72.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mayendit (6,715 ha, 2.2 %); Leer (555 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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.

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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.