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Nyirol fire, February 2016 Nyirol, Ulang

Out · last detection 15 Feb 2016, 11:07 UTC

The fire started on 6 February 2016 in Nyirol, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,633 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 197th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 115 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
7,633ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
6 Feb 2016 – 15 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
6 Feb
2016
Heat detections
287
in a single hotspot: 109 MW
Danger at start
71
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Feb15 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
51km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Nyirol where it started
    3,981 ha reached on 4 Feb
    0.6 %
  2. Ulang
    3,705 ha reached on 4 Feb
    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)
6 Feb 39.6 °C 11 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
7 Feb 38.3 °C 13 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
8 Feb 37.9 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
9 Feb 39.2 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
10 Feb 37.9 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
11 Feb 38.4 °C 9 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
12 Feb 39.2 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
13 Feb 39.9 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
14 Feb 40.7 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
15 Feb 41.3 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
16 Feb after 41.1 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
17 Feb after 40.9 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Feb after 41.9 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Feb after 42.5 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
20 Feb after 42.2 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
21 Feb after 41.9 °C 11 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Feb after 40.3 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
23 Feb after 38.9 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
24 Feb after 40.5 °C 9 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
25 Feb after 41.8 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jan 2016
After · 22 Feb 2016

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 · 287Every 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 Nyirol fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 February 2016 and 15 February 2016: 10 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 7,633 hectares (76.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nyirol (3,981 ha, 0.6 %); Ulang (3,705 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very 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.