Burned area
satellite only5,453ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 17 Dec 2020 – 27 Dec 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
SS · South Sudan · –
Nzara fire, 17 December 2020 Nzara, Yambio
Out · last detection 27 Dec 2020, 10:46 UTC
The fire started on 17 December 2020 in Nzara, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,453 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 271th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 299 with a page). Number 175 in South Sudan in 2020, of 190.
Use this data
Compare with…
Suggestions: Nzara · 2025Yambio · 2025Yambio · 2016Yambio · 2017
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only11days
17 Dec 2020 to 27 Dec 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 27 Dec 2020, 10:46 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only17 Dec 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 17 Dec 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only166
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 98 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 17 Dec 2020 – 27 Dec 2020
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only2,486MW
Total radiative power on 17 December 2020; hotspots that day: 85.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 17 Dec 2020
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model48.9FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 39.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 17 Dec 2020, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model37.3°C · 18% RH
High of 37.3 °C and minimum humidity of 18% on 25 December 2020; gusts of 42 km/h on 17 December 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 17 Dec 2020 – 27 Dec 2020
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 20 December 2020 → 27 December 2020.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 5,453 ha
- Dates
- 17 Dec 2020 – 27 Dec 2020
- Name
- Nzara
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/nzara-2020-12-3?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire nzara-2020-12-3.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-12-17 | 85 | 2,486 | 35.9 | 22.1 | 15 | 17.9 | 42.5 | 0 | 48.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-12-18 | 13 | 77 | 35.5 | 22.5 | 19 | 14.8 | 35.3 | 0 | 46.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-12-19 | 38 | 675 | 35.3 | 22 | 18 | 9.5 | 27 | 0 | 41.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-12-20 | 2 | 7 | 35.5 | 21.8 | 19 | 10.1 | 26.6 | 0 | 42.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-12-21 | 0 | 0 | 36.5 | 22.4 | 19 | 11.6 | 27.7 | 0 | 44.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-12-22 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 23.8 | 23 | 18 | 39.2 | 0 | 49.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-12-23 | 17 | 66 | 36.8 | 23.9 | 21 | 16.5 | 41.4 | 0 | 48.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-12-24 | 4 | 96 | 36.1 | 23.7 | 22 | 11.5 | 27.7 | 0 | 43.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-12-25 | 0 | 0 | 37.3 | 24 | 18 | 9.8 | 25.9 | 0 | 42.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-12-26 | 5 | 24 | 36.3 | 23.3 | 22 | 9.2 | 22.3 | 0 | 41.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-12-27 | 2 | 3 | 36.8 | 25.2 | 19 | 13.2 | 29.5 | 0 | 46.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-12-28 | 0 | 0 | 36.6 | 23.3 | 21 | 13.8 | 34.2 | 0 | 47.4 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-12-29 | 0 | 0 | 36.4 | 23.4 | 20 | 15.9 | 39.6 | 0 | 50.1 | extremo | 0 |
| 2020-12-30 | 0 | 0 | 36.7 | 23.7 | 19 | 12.6 | 30.2 | 0 | 46.7 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-12-31 | 0 | 0 | 36.9 | 23.1 | 17 | 11 | 28.1 | 0 | 45.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2021-01-01 | 0 | 0 | 36.1 | 24.2 | 17 | 11.7 | 21.2 | 0 | 46.4 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2021-01-02 | 0 | 0 | 36.1 | 25.4 | 21 | 14 | 32.4 | 0 | 48.5 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2021-01-03 | 0 | 0 | 35.2 | 23.9 | 24 | 12.9 | 31.3 | 0 | 44.8 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2021-01-04 | 0 | 0 | 35.1 | 24.9 | 23 | 14.6 | 31.7 | 0 | 46.8 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2021-01-05 | 0 | 0 | 37.3 | 24.6 | 19 | 12.6 | 32 | 0 | 45 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2021-01-06 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 24.3 | 15 | 14.3 | 33.5 | 0 | 49.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 5,453ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 17 Dec 2020 – 27 Dec 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 17 Dec
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 166
- in a single hotspot: 98 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 430MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
17 Dec27 Dec
27 Dec 2020
How it evolved, day by day
17 Dec
19 Dec
23 Dec
26 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
42km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity
It had gone 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,256 ha in 2016, 2,657 ha in 2017, 1,240 ha in 2018, 1,514 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,249 ha that had burned before.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Nzara where it started4,199 ha reached on 17 Dec0.6 %
-
1,296 ha reached on 17 Dec0.2 %
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 2020Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Dec | 35.9 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 18 Dec | 35.5 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Dec | 35.3 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 20 Dec | 35.5 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Dec | 36.5 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 22 Dec | 36.0 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 23 Dec | 36.8 °C | 21 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 24 Dec | 36.1 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Dec | 37.3 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Dec | 36.3 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Dec | 36.8 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 28 Dec after | 36.6 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 29 Dec after | 36.4 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 30 Dec after | 36.7 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 31 Dec after | 36.9 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 1 Jan after | 36.1 °C | 17 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 2 Jan after | 36.1 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Jan after | 35.2 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 4 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 5 Jan after | 37.3 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 6 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 48.9, a minimum humidity of 15% and 39 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 23.
FWI at the start
48.9
Minimum humidity
15 %
Days without rain
39
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Nzara fire, 17 December 2020
5,453 ha
11 days
FWI 48.9
Min. humidity 15 %
Nzara fire, January 2025
7,716 ha
12 days
FWI 50.3
Min. humidity 15 %
8 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Yambio fire, January 2025
5,804 ha
6 days
FWI 50.0
Min. humidity 15 %
28 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Tonj South fire, December 2021
7,201 ha
6 days
FWI 48.8
Min. humidity 15 %
73 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Nzara fire, January 2024
8,185 ha
13 days
FWI 48.7
Min. humidity 16 %
34 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Nzara fire, January 2020
7,179 ha
11 days
FWI 48.9
Min. humidity 17 %
24 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 11 days
- median duration
- 7,668 ha
- median area
- 26 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- —
- rain at the end (median; 0 of 23 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (5,453 ha against a median of 7,668 ha) and lasted 11 days, against 11 days.
In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
42km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 27 Dec, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. None of its 23 twins had rain when they ended.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 10 Dec 2020
After · 3 Jan 2021
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 166Every 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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nzara fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 December 2020 to 27 December 2020 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 December 2020 to 20 December 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,453 hectares (54.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nzara (4,199 ha, 0.6 %); Yambio (1,296 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very high.
- 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 23. Their median duration was 11 days and their median area 7,668 ha; 26 % went past 10,000 ha. In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.
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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 20 December 2020 → 27 December 2020.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 17 December 2020 to 20 December 2020. 166 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.