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Mayom fire, December 2018 Mayom, Abiemnhom

Out · last detection 22 Dec 2018, 23:23 UTC

The fire started on 15 December 2018 in Mayom, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,169 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 80th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 110 in South Sudan in 2018, of 120.

Burnt area
5,169ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
15 Dec 2018 – 22 Dec 2018
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
15 Dec
2018
Heat detections
161
in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Dec 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Dec22 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
41km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 51 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 441 ha in 2016, 2,283 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,548 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mayom where it started
    3,653 ha reached on 13 Dec
    0.8 %
  2. Abiemnhom
    1,551 ha reached on 16 Dec
    0.6 %

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)
15 Dec 37.6 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Dec 38.3 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Dec 38.5 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Dec 36.5 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
19 Dec 36.3 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Dec 35.9 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Dec 35.7 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Dec 34.7 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
23 Dec after 35.0 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Dec after 35.8 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Dec after 37.2 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Dec after 37.7 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Dec after 38.2 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
28 Dec after 36.9 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Dec after 37.2 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Dec after 35.6 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
31 Dec after 35.8 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Jan after 37.3 °C 15 % 28 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 · 8 Dec 2018
After · 29 Dec 2018

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 · 161Every 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 Mayom fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 December 2018 and 22 December 2018: 8 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 5,169 hectares (51.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mayom (3,653 ha, 0.8 %); Abiemnhom (1,551 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.