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Panyikang fire, 25 November 2019 Panyikang, Malakal

Out · last detection 10 Dec 2019, 23:04 UTC

The fire started on 25 November 2019 in Panyikang, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,767 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 55th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 35 in South Sudan in 2019, of 150.

Burnt area
12,767ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
25 Nov 2019 – 9 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
25 Nov
2019
Heat detections
434
in a single hotspot: 205 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
6.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Dec 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Nov9 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

2527282930345678910

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
43km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,146 ha in 2016, 7,186 ha in 2017, 1,193 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,924 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Panyikang where it started
    12,774 ha reached on 25 Nov
    2.5 %
  2. Malakal
    82 ha reached on 8 Dec
    0.1 %

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)
25 Nov 33.6 °C 33 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
26 Nov 34.0 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
27 Nov 34.6 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
28 Nov 36.4 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Nov 35.8 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Nov 35.0 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Dec 35.1 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Dec 34.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Dec 35.6 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Dec 35.3 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Dec 34.8 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Dec 35.4 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Dec 35.3 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Dec 35.5 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Dec 34.5 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Dec after 34.7 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Dec after 34.9 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Dec after 35.5 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Dec after 35.3 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Dec after 35.3 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Dec after 35.2 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Dec after 34.5 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Dec after 33.7 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Dec after 34.2 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Dec after 34.9 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Nov 2019
After · 16 Dec 2019

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 · 434Every 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 Panyikang fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 November 2019 and 9 December 2019: 15 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 12,767 hectares (127.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Panyikang (12,774 ha, 2.5 %); Malakal (82 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.

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.