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Nzara fire, January 2017 Yambio, Nzara

Out · last detection 19 Jan 2017, 11:49 UTC

The fire started on 13 January 2017 in Nzara, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,473 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 228th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 119 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
6,473ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
13 Jan 2017 – 18 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
13 Jan
2017
Heat detections
183
in a single hotspot: 102 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jan18 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

13141516171819

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
39km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 26 Jan.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 21 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Yambio
    6,309 ha reached on 14 Jan
    0.7 %
  2. Nzara where it started
    205 ha reached on 13 Jan
    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)
13 Jan 38.2 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Jan 37.8 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Jan 39.0 °C 11 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Jan 40.4 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Jan 39.8 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Jan 39.6 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jan after 39.1 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Jan after 40.3 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Jan after 39.3 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Jan after 40.5 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Jan after 40.1 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
24 Jan after 36.6 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Jan after 36.8 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 46
26 Jan after 33.9 °C 36 % 38 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Jan 2017
After · 25 Jan 2017

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 · 183Every 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 Nzara fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 January 2017 and 18 January 2017: 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 6,473 hectares (64.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yambio (6,309 ha, 0.7 %); Nzara (205 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.4 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 39 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

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.