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Panyijiar fire, 3 January 2016 Panyijiar

Out · last detection 19 Jan 2016, 11:14 UTC

The fire started on 3 January 2016 in Panyijiar, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,556 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 11th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 50 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
13,556ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
3 Jan 2016 – 19 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
3 Jan
2016
Heat detections
380
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Jan19 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

35678910111213141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
44km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Panyijiar where it started
    13,650 ha reached on 3 Jan
    2.5 %

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)
3 Jan 35.3 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
4 Jan 36.7 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Jan 37.0 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Jan 36.4 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Jan 38.1 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Jan 39.1 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Jan 38.2 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Jan 38.0 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Jan 37.8 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Jan 38.0 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Jan 37.8 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Jan 37.3 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Jan 37.4 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Jan 37.7 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Jan 38.8 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Jan 38.9 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Jan 37.5 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
20 Jan after 36.8 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Jan after 37.0 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Jan after 37.3 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Jan after 38.8 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Jan after 38.2 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
25 Jan after 34.6 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
26 Jan after 33.8 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
27 Jan after 32.0 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
28 Jan after 32.2 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Jan after 31.9 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Dec 2015
After · 26 Jan 2016

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 · 380Every 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 Panyijiar fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 January 2016 and 19 January 2016: 17 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 13,556 hectares (135.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Panyijiar (13,650 ha, 2.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.