How long did the Nyirol fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 January 2025 to 15 February 2025 (42 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 January 2025 to 8 February 2025.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 15,857 hectares (158.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Nyirol (8,847 ha, 1.2 %); Akobo (4,626 ha, 0.5 %); Ulang (2,488 ha, 0.5 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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.

SS · South Sudan · 2025-01-05 → 2025-02-15

Nyirol fire, 5 January 2025 Nyirol, Akobo, Ulang

Out · last detection 15 Feb 2025, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 5 January 2025 in Nyirol, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 42 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,857 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 46th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 428 with a page). Number 67 in South Sudan in 2025, of 292.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Akobo · 2022 Nyirol · 2023 Nyirol · 2024 Ulang · 2025

Burnt area: 15,857ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 42days; 5 Jan 2025 – 15 Feb 2025
Municipalities hit: 3; counties
Started on: 5 Jan; 2025
Heat detections: 672; in a single hotspot: 159 MW
Danger at start: 45; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 244MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Jan15 Feb

Play back 15 Feb 2025

How it evolved, day by day

5 Jan 11 Jan 17 Jan 21 Jan 23 Jan 29 Jan 4 Feb 14 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

40°high

47km/h · peak gust

10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 540 ha in 2016, 3,589 ha in 2017, 5,394 ha in 2018, 2,103 ha in 2019, 14,194 ha in 2022, 11,840 ha in 2023, 12,132 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,279 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 10% of the area of London (159 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

Nyirol where it started

8,847 ha reached on 5 Jan

1.2 %
Akobo

4,626 ha reached on 9 Jan

0.5 %
Ulang

2,488 ha reached on 15 Jan

0.5 %

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)
5 Jan	38.0 °C	18 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
6 Jan	37.2 °C	18 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
7 Jan	36.1 °C	15 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
8 Jan	36.8 °C	13 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
9 Jan	37.5 °C	15 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
10 Jan	37.0 °C	14 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
11 Jan	36.1 °C	16 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
12 Jan	35.8 °C	13 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
13 Jan	35.5 °C	15 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
14 Jan	37.5 °C	15 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
15 Jan	37.6 °C	16 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
16 Jan	37.4 °C	20 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
17 Jan	38.2 °C	18 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
18 Jan	38.5 °C	16 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
19 Jan	39.4 °C	16 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
20 Jan	39.6 °C	13 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
21 Jan	39.2 °C	14 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
22 Jan	39.0 °C	14 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
23 Jan	38.0 °C	15 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
24 Jan	37.3 °C	16 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 67
25 Jan	37.6 °C	15 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
26 Jan	37.1 °C	12 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
27 Jan	36.9 °C	10 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
28 Jan	37.6 °C	12 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
29 Jan	36.6 °C	11 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
30 Jan	36.4 °C	14 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 66
31 Jan	36.0 °C	15 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
1 Feb	38.4 °C	14 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
2 Feb	38.6 °C	14 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 64
3 Feb	39.8 °C	14 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 66
4 Feb	38.9 °C	15 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
5 Feb	38.8 °C	17 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
6 Feb	39.8 °C	14 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
7 Feb	39.1 °C	15 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
8 Feb	39.1 °C	16 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
9 Feb	39.1 °C	15 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
10 Feb	39.6 °C	12 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 64
11 Feb	39.6 °C	12 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
12 Feb	37.9 °C	20 %	31 km/h	0.2 mm	Extreme 58
13 Feb	39.4 °C	19 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
14 Feb	39.2 °C	19 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
15 Feb	38.6 °C	23 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
16 Feb after	39.2 °C	18 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
17 Feb after	40.2 °C	19 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
18 Feb after	39.5 °C	17 %	30 km/h	0.1 mm	Extreme 51
19 Feb after	39.7 °C	15 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
20 Feb after	41.1 °C	11 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
21 Feb after	41.3 °C	12 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
22 Feb after	40.5 °C	10 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
23 Feb after	40.9 °C	9 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
24 Feb after	40.5 °C	13 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
25 Feb after	40.2 °C	13 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 29 Dec 2024

After · 22 Feb 2025

Before After

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 5 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 89 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 49: 3.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak89 µg/m³

Days over the guideline23 days

PM1096 µg/m³

Optical depth1.45

WHO 15

3456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011

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 · 672Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in South Sudan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Nyirol fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 January 2025 to 15 February 2025 (42 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 January 2025 to 8 February 2025.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 15,857 hectares (158.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Nyirol (8,847 ha, 1.2 %); Akobo (4,626 ha, 0.5 %); Ulang (2,488 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

26 October 2026 Last day with fire: 8 February 2025 → 15 February 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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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 5 January 2025 to 8 February 2025. 672 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.

Where it burned