Nagero fire, 11 December 2019 Nagero, Wau
The fire started on 11 December 2019 in Nagero, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 35,551 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 26th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 359 with a page). Number 15 in South Sudan in 2019, of 150.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Wau · 2016Nagero · 2016Nagero · 2017Wau · 2016
- Burnt area
- 35,551ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 24days
- 11 Dec 2019 – 3 Jan 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 11 Dec
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 1,504
- in a single hotspot: 157 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 690MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 35,083 ha in 2016, 14,005 ha in 2017, 7,821 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 32,290 ha that had burned before.
- 25,094 ha Wau fire, November 2016 742,600 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,622 ha Nagero fire, January 2016 18,322 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,131 ha Nagero fire, December 2017 10,601 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,408 ha Wau fire, February 2016 7,484 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,679 ha Nagero fire, December 2017 9,085 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,330 ha Wau fire, January 2016 5,013 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Nagero where it started29,397 ha reached on 11 Dec3.2 %
-
6,393 ha reached on 11 Dec0.3 %
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 2020Inside 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Dec | 33.4 °C | 33 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 12 Dec | 33.1 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 13 Dec | 34.4 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Dec | 35.1 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 15 Dec | 34.9 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Dec | 34.7 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Dec | 34.6 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 18 Dec | 34.3 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Dec | 34.6 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Dec | 35.1 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 21 Dec | 35.5 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 22 Dec | 35.9 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Dec | 36.5 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Dec | 35.8 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 25 Dec | 36.6 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Dec | 35.4 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 27 Dec | 34.7 °C | 10 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 28 Dec | 33.8 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 29 Dec | 34.9 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 30 Dec | 36.3 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 31 Dec | 36.1 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 1 Jan | 36.7 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 2 Jan | 38.0 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 3 Jan | 37.9 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 4 Jan after | 35.5 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 5 Jan after | 33.4 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 6 Jan after | 34.5 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 7 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 8 Jan after | 36.0 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 9 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 10 Jan after | 34.3 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 11 Jan after | 33.1 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 12 Jan after | 32.2 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 13 Jan after | 33.7 °C | 9 % | 31 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.
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 · 1,504Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 23,947 haWau2 December 2025 · 23 days · 29 km away
- 18,322 haNagero18 January 2016 · 25 days · 29 km away
- 15,325 haNagero15 December 2018 · 16 days · 31 km away
- 106,438 haWau2 December 2025 · 50 days · 32 km away
- 77,790 haWau15 November 2025 · 46 days · 32 km away
- 59,458 haNagero19 December 2019 · 37 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nagero fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 December 2019 to 3 January 2020 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 December 2019 to 3 January 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 35,551 hectares (355.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nagero (29,397 ha, 3.2 %); Wau (6,393 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Start date: 17 December 2019 → 11 December 2019.
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
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 17 December 2019 to 3 January 2020. 1,504 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.
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.