Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · –

Nzara fire, 22 December 2020 Nzara

Out · last detection 18 Jan 2021, 23:11 UTC

The fire started on 22 December 2020 in Nzara, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,803 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 92th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 299 with a page). Number 41 in South Sudan in 2020, of 190.

Burnt area
11,803ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
22 Dec 2020 – 18 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
22 Dec
2020
Heat detections
442
in a single hotspot: 70 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
111MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Dec18 Jan
18 Jan 2021

How it evolved, day by day

22 Dec 2020 · 1 MW · 1 23 Dec 2020 · 4 MW · 1 24 Dec 2020 · 59 MW · 3 26 Dec 2020 · 32 MW · 10 28 Dec 2020 · 6 MW · 5 29 Dec 2020 · 91 MW · 17 30 Dec 2020 · 397 MW · 30 31 Dec 2020 · 164 MW · 41 1 Jan 2021 · 230 MW · 39 2 Jan 2021 · 62 MW · 19 3 Jan 2021 · 74 MW · 23 4 Jan 2021 · 94 MW · 16 5 Jan 2021 · 234 MW · 69 6 Jan 2021 · 236 MW · 48 7 Jan 2021 · 90 MW · 23 8 Jan 2021 · 214 MW · 15 10 Jan 2021 · 17 MW · 5 11 Jan 2021 · 166 MW · 27 12 Jan 2021 · 49 MW · 18 13 Jan 2021 · 269 MW · 17 14 Jan 2021 · 52 MW · 10 15 Jan 2021 · 12 MW · 4 18 Jan 2021 · 1 MW · 1
22 Dec 30 Dec 3 Jan 8 Jan 14 Jan

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
41km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,852 ha in 2016, 3,852 ha in 2017, 1,198 ha in 2018, 2,585 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,622 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 7.5% of the area of London (118 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

  1. Nzara where it started
    11,891 ha reached on 22 Dec
    1.8 %

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 2020
Built-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)
22 Dec 35.5 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Dec 36.6 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Dec 35.5 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Dec 36.7 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Dec 35.9 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Dec 36.3 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Dec 36.3 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Dec 36.1 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Dec 36.7 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Dec 36.6 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Jan 35.9 °C 16 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Jan 35.7 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Jan 35.0 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Jan 34.9 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jan 36.3 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Jan 37.7 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Jan 36.3 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Jan 36.1 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Jan 34.4 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Jan 35.7 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Jan 36.0 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Jan 36.9 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Jan 36.1 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Jan 37.0 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
15 Jan 36.2 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Jan 36.5 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Jan 36.8 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Jan 37.1 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Jan after 36.5 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Jan after 36.1 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Jan after 35.5 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Jan after 35.8 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Jan after 36.8 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Jan after 35.4 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Jan after 36.6 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Jan after 35.5 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 44
27 Jan after 37.0 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Jan after 37.3 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 48.2, a minimum humidity of 23% and 45 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 25.

FWI at the start 48.2
Minimum humidity 23 %
Days without rain 45
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Tonj South fire, January 2020
6,525 ha 15 days FWI 49.0 Min. humidity 22 % 112 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
7,978 ha
median area
24 %
went past 10,000 ha
—
rain at the end (median; 0 of 25 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (11,803 ha against a median of 7,978 ha) and lasted 28 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
41km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 18 Jan, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. None of its 25 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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Dec 2020
After · 25 Jan 2021

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 · 442Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 December 2020 to 18 January 2021 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 December 2020 to 15 January 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,803 hectares (118.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Nzara (11,891 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.
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: 25. Their median duration was 11 days and their median area 7,978 ha; 24 % 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 15 January 2021 → 18 January 2021.
  2. Start date: 29 December 2020 → 22 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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 29 December 2020 to 15 January 2021. 442 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.

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.