Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Melut fire, November 2019 Melut

Out · last detection 5 Dec 2019, 12:03 UTC

The fire started on 28 November 2019 in Melut, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,417 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 249th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 135 in South Sudan in 2019, of 150.

Burnt area
5,417ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
28 Nov 2019 – 5 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
28 Nov
2019
Heat detections
147
in a single hotspot: 95 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Dec 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Nov5 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

28293012345

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
39km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

68% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,792 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Melut where it started
    5,448 ha reached on 28 Nov
    0.8 %

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)
28 Nov 37.8 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Nov 36.9 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Nov 36.2 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Dec 36.7 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Dec 36.5 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Dec 36.5 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Dec 36.1 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Dec 36.0 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Dec after 36.5 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Dec after 36.0 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Dec after 36.5 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Dec after 35.6 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Dec after 36.3 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Dec after 36.3 °C 18 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Dec after 36.9 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Dec after 36.2 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Dec after 36.5 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Dec after 36.5 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Nov 2019
After · 12 Dec 2019

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 · 147Every 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 Melut fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 November 2019 and 5 December 2019: 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 5,417 hectares (54.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Melut (5,448 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.