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Nyirol fire, December 2018 Nyirol, Baliet

Out · last detection 25 Dec 2018, 11:32 UTC

The fire started on 19 December 2018 in Nyirol, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,736 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 336th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 92 in South Sudan in 2018, of 120.

Burnt area
5,736ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
19 Dec 2018 – 24 Dec 2018
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
19 Dec
2018
Heat detections
146
in a single hotspot: 137 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
189MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

25 Dec 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Dec24 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

19 Dec 2018 · 481 MW · 43 20 Dec 2018 · 627 MW · 43 21 Dec 2018 · 24 MW · 12 22 Dec 2018 · 73 MW · 20 23 Dec 2018 · 34 MW · 10 24 Dec 2018 · 68 MW · 15 25 Dec 2018 · 16 MW · 3
19 Dec 20 Dec 21 Dec 22 Dec 23 Dec 24 Dec 25 Dec

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
45km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,106 ha in 2016, 3,365 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Nyirol where it started
    5,750 ha reached on 19 Dec
    0.8 %
  2. Baliet
    28 ha reached on 19 Dec
    0.0 %

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)
19 Dec 36.9 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Dec 36.8 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
21 Dec 36.2 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Dec 35.6 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Dec 35.4 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Dec 36.1 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Dec after 37.1 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Dec after 37.2 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Dec after 37.0 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Dec after 32.6 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Dec after 36.8 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Dec after 35.4 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
31 Dec after 35.9 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Jan after 36.2 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Jan after 37.4 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Jan after 36.4 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Dec 2018
After · 31 Dec 2018

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 · 146Every 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 19 December 2018 and 24 December 2018: 6 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 5,736 hectares (57.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nyirol (5,750 ha, 0.8 %); Baliet (28 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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

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.