Skip to content
worldfires
en
SS · South Sudan · →

Nagero fire, 7 December 2025 Nagero, Tambura, Wau

Out · last detection 12 Jan 2026, 22:52 UTC

The fire started on 7 December 2025 in Nagero, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 126,959 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 6th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 359 with a page). Number 4 in South Sudan in 2025, of 292.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Wau · 2016Nagero · 2019Nagero · 2021Nagero · 2024

Burnt area
126,959ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
36days
7 Dec 2025 – 11 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
7 Dec
2025
Heat detections
4,500
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Average daily power
1.4GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Dec11 Jan
12 Jan 2026

How it evolved, day by day

7 Dec 2025 · 1,146 MW · 69 8 Dec 2025 · 856 MW · 76 9 Dec 2025 · 59 MW · 6 10 Dec 2025 · 893 MW · 61 11 Dec 2025 · 1,692 MW · 139 12 Dec 2025 · 2,985 MW · 207 13 Dec 2025 · 1,528 MW · 160 14 Dec 2025 · 853 MW · 145 15 Dec 2025 · 1,509 MW · 117 16 Dec 2025 · 1,615 MW · 165 17 Dec 2025 · 2,502 MW · 269 18 Dec 2025 · 2,677 MW · 291 19 Dec 2025 · 2,584 MW · 231 20 Dec 2025 · 2,413 MW · 166 21 Dec 2025 · 2,478 MW · 146 22 Dec 2025 · 762 MW · 92 23 Dec 2025 · 393 MW · 43 24 Dec 2025 · 1,369 MW · 111 25 Dec 2025 · 2,093 MW · 105 26 Dec 2025 · 352 MW · 41 27 Dec 2025 · 1,752 MW · 120 28 Dec 2025 · 163 MW · 28 29 Dec 2025 · 832 MW · 89 30 Dec 2025 · 3,291 MW · 181 1 Jan 2026 · 446 MW · 51 2 Jan 2026 · 2,852 MW · 237 3 Jan 2026 · 768 MW · 173 4 Jan 2026 · 1,788 MW · 311 5 Jan 2026 · 2,277 MW · 182 6 Jan 2026 · 685 MW · 117 7 Jan 2026 · 802 MW · 99 8 Jan 2026 · 700 MW · 146 9 Jan 2026 · 602 MW · 105 11 Jan 2026 · 52 MW · 15 12 Jan 2026 · 34 MW · 6
7 Dec 12 Dec 17 Dec 22 Dec 27 Dec 30 Dec 2 Jan 7 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

36°high
36km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 81,903 ha in 2016, 39,834 ha in 2017, 29,259 ha in 2018, 42,387 ha in 2019, 38,697 ha in 2020, 26,770 ha in 2021, 27,428 ha in 2022, 14,454 ha in 2023, 36,691 ha in 2024, 10,942 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 118,281 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 80% of the area of London (1,270 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. Nagero where it started
    126,903 ha
    14 %
  2. Tambura
    451 ha
    0.0 %
  3. Wau
    445 ha
    0.0 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
7 Dec 34.0 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Dec 35.7 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Dec 32.8 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Dec 33.1 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Dec 33.3 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Dec 33.5 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Dec 32.8 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Dec 33.3 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Dec 32.1 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Dec 31.9 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Dec 32.6 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Dec 32.4 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Dec 32.6 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Dec 33.4 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Dec 34.6 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Dec 33.8 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Dec 33.4 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Dec 34.9 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Dec 34.8 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Dec 34.8 °C 20 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Dec 35.8 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Dec 33.4 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Dec 32.9 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Dec 32.7 °C 20 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Dec 32.4 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Jan 34.2 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Jan 35.6 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Jan 34.6 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Jan 35.4 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Jan 35.3 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Jan 35.2 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Jan 35.2 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Jan 36.2 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Jan 35.7 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Jan 34.3 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Jan 34.3 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Jan after 35.7 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Jan after 35.2 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Jan after 34.2 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Jan after 33.9 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Jan after 33.7 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Jan after 35.2 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Jan after 35.6 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Jan after 35.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Jan after 36.3 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Jan after 36.4 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Nov 2025
After · 18 Jan 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 23 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 114 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 78: 5.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak114 µg/m³
Days over the guideline41 days
PM10131 µg/m³
Optical depth1.02
56789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 0Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 December 2025 and 11 January 2026: 36 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 126,959 hectares (1,269.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Nagero (126,903 ha, 14 %); Tambura (451 ha, 0.0 %); Wau (445 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 36 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

History of this page · 4 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 15 January 2026 → 11 January 2026.
  2. Start date: 30 November 2025 → 7 December 2025.
  3. Last day with fire: 11 January 2026 → 15 January 2026.
  4. Start date: 7 December 2025 → 30 November 2025.

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; 9 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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 2025, 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.