Skip to content
worldfires
en
SS · South Sudan · →

Nagero fire, 5 December 2018 Tambura, Wau, Nagero

Out · last detection 5 Jan 2019, 11:25 UTC

The fire started on 5 December 2018 in Nagero, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 73,772 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 359 with a page). Number 2 in South Sudan in 2018, of 120.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Tambura · 2016Tambura · 2020Tambura · 2022Wau · 2025

Burnt area
73,772ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
31days
5 Dec 2018 – 4 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
5 Dec
2018
Heat detections
3,337
in a single hotspot: 215 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Average daily power
905MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Dec4 Jan
5 Jan 2019

How it evolved, day by day

5 Dec 2018 · 1 MW · 1 6 Dec 2018 · 12 MW · 9 7 Dec 2018 · 296 MW · 37 8 Dec 2018 · 384 MW · 41 10 Dec 2018 · 650 MW · 74 11 Dec 2018 · 166 MW · 48 12 Dec 2018 · 1,387 MW · 123 13 Dec 2018 · 638 MW · 91 14 Dec 2018 · 3,419 MW · 264 15 Dec 2018 · 5,183 MW · 537 16 Dec 2018 · 65 MW · 58 17 Dec 2018 · 2,772 MW · 210 18 Dec 2018 · 678 MW · 83 19 Dec 2018 · 2,498 MW · 115 20 Dec 2018 · 2,671 MW · 279 21 Dec 2018 · 1,200 MW · 292 22 Dec 2018 · 986 MW · 208 23 Dec 2018 · 1,163 MW · 197 24 Dec 2018 · 502 MW · 79 25 Dec 2018 · 657 MW · 100 26 Dec 2018 · 418 MW · 118 27 Dec 2018 · 207 MW · 50 28 Dec 2018 · 152 MW · 40 29 Dec 2018 · 308 MW · 37 30 Dec 2018 · 238 MW · 42 31 Dec 2018 · 550 MW · 46 1 Jan 2019 · 87 MW · 47 2 Jan 2019 · 462 MW · 55 3 Jan 2019 · 156 MW · 36 4 Jan 2019 · 132 MW · 18 5 Jan 2019 · 8 MW · 2
5 Dec 11 Dec 15 Dec 16 Dec 21 Dec 26 Dec 31 Dec 5 Jan

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
40km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 72,045 ha in 2016, 21,766 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 59,624 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 47% of the area of London (738 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Tambura
    59,592 ha reached on 7 Dec
    4.8 %
  2. Wau
    8,197 ha reached on 7 Dec
    0.4 %
  3. Nagero where it started
    6,522 ha reached on 5 Dec
    0.7 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
5 Dec 35.1 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Dec 36.1 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Dec 36.2 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Dec 36.3 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Dec 30.5 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Dec 35.5 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Dec 34.9 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Dec 35.5 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Dec 35.9 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Dec 35.4 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Dec 36.7 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Dec 36.9 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Dec 37.2 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Dec 35.9 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Dec 36.2 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Dec 35.6 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Dec 35.4 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Dec 35.0 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Dec 35.0 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Dec 35.3 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Dec 36.1 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Dec 36.9 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Dec 37.2 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Dec 37.2 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Dec 36.8 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Dec 36.5 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
31 Dec 35.9 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Jan 37.0 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Jan 36.8 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Jan 37.6 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Jan 37.3 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Jan after 36.5 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
6 Jan after 36.6 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Jan after 36.6 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Jan after 36.1 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Jan after 36.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
10 Jan after 36.9 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Jan after 38.0 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Jan after 38.8 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Jan after 39.1 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Jan after 36.5 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Nov 2018
After · 11 Jan 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 · 3,337Every 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 Nagero fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 December 2018 to 4 January 2019 (31 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 December 2018 to 30 December 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 73,772 hectares (737.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tambura (59,592 ha, 4.8 %); Wau (8,197 ha, 0.4 %); Nagero (6,522 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 30 December 2018 → 4 January 2019.
  2. Start date: 12 December 2018 → 5 December 2018.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 12 December 2018 to 30 December 2018. 3,337 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.