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Mayom fire, December 2019 Koch, Mayom

Out · last detection 30 Dec 2019, 10:53 UTC

The fire started on 11 December 2019 in Mayom, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,377 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 54 in South Sudan in 2019, of 150.

Burnt area
10,377ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
11 Dec 2019 – 29 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
11 Dec
2019
Heat detections
437
in a single hotspot: 131 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Dec 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Dec29 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

11131415161718192021222324252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
38km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,146 ha in 2016, 4,206 ha in 2017, 432 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,351 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Koch
    9,788 ha reached on 11 Dec
    2.2 %
  2. Mayom where it started
    659 ha reached on 6 Dec
    0.2 %

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)
11 Dec 35.8 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Dec 35.2 °C 29 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Dec 35.7 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Dec 35.6 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Dec 36.0 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Dec 35.3 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Dec 34.7 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Dec 35.0 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Dec 35.3 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Dec 35.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Dec 36.1 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Dec 36.8 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Dec 36.6 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Dec 36.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Dec 37.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Dec 35.8 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Dec 34.7 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Dec 34.1 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Dec 35.0 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Dec after 36.6 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Dec after 36.7 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Jan after 36.8 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Jan after 37.9 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Jan after 37.1 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Jan after 35.0 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Jan after 33.5 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
6 Jan after 34.5 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Jan after 35.8 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Jan after 36.2 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Dec 2019
After · 5 Jan 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 · 437Every 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 11 December 2019 and 29 December 2019: 19 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 10,377 hectares (103.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Koch (9,788 ha, 2.2 %); Mayom (659 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.