Burned area
satellite only11,280ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 13 Jan 2024 – 26 Jan 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
SS · South Sudan · –
Panyikang fire, January 2024 Baliet, Panyikang
Out · last detection 26 Jan 2024, 10:54 UTC
The fire started on 13 January 2024 in Panyikang, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,280 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 59th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 238 with a page). Number 49 in South Sudan in 2024, of 180.
Use this data
Compare with…
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 only14days
13 Jan 2024 to 26 Jan 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 26 Jan 2024, 10:54 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 only13 Jan 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 13 Jan 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only516
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 98 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 13 Jan 2024 – 26 Jan 2024
+− 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 only1,690MW
Total radiative power on 17 January 2024; hotspots that day: 116.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 17 Jan 2024
+− 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
model64.3FWI · extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 59.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 13 Jan 2024, 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
model39.1°C · 12% RH
High of 39.1 °C and minimum humidity of 12% on 23 January 2024; gusts of 50 km/h on 26 January 2024.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 13 Jan 2024 – 26 Jan 2024
- 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
-
logLast day with fire: 23 January 2024 → 26 January 2024.
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· 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
- 11,280 ha
- Dates
- 13 Jan 2024 – 26 Jan 2024
- Name
- Panyikang
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/panyikang-2024-01?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 panyikang-2024-01.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-01-13 | 7 | 82 | 37.6 | 23.7 | 13 | 19.1 | 39.6 | 0 | 64.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-14 | 23 | 466 | 38.2 | 24.5 | 13 | 20.8 | 42.8 | 0 | 67.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-15 | 62 | 703 | 37.1 | 24.7 | 11 | 25 | 49.3 | 0 | 73.9 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-16 | 90 | 1,564 | 36.6 | 23.8 | 12 | 22 | 43.9 | 0 | 68.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-17 | 116 | 1,690 | 36.4 | 24 | 16 | 20.8 | 42.8 | 0 | 63.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-18 | 119 | 1,133 | 35.7 | 23.7 | 12 | 21.2 | 43.2 | 0 | 64.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-19 | 47 | 530 | 36.5 | 22.9 | 7 | 20.7 | 41.4 | 0 | 65.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-20 | 26 | 98 | 36.6 | 22.1 | 9 | 21.7 | 44.3 | 0 | 67.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-21 | 14 | 114 | 37.3 | 22.8 | 10 | 22.9 | 45.4 | 0 | 69.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-22 | 4 | 19 | 38.4 | 24.1 | 10 | 16.4 | 35.6 | 0 | 60.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-23 | 2 | 12 | 39.1 | 26.5 | 12 | 18 | 38.5 | 0 | 62.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-24 | 1 | 1 | 38.8 | 26.4 | 13 | 20.5 | 42.1 | 0 | 66.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-25 | 4 | 56 | 38.1 | 25.8 | 14 | 20 | 41.4 | 0 | 65.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-26 | 1 | 3 | 35.3 | 23.3 | 12 | 25.8 | 49.7 | 0 | 73.7 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2024-01-27 | 0 | 0 | 33.9 | 21.1 | 9 | 22 | 44.6 | 0 | 68.1 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-01-28 | 0 | 0 | 35.9 | 21.4 | 10 | 21.3 | 42.5 | 0 | 67.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-01-29 | 0 | 0 | 35.9 | 22.6 | 12 | 19.5 | 39.2 | 0 | 64.7 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-01-30 | 0 | 0 | 36.8 | 24.5 | 11 | 22.5 | 44.3 | 0 | 69.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-01-31 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 24.5 | 12 | 21.5 | 42.5 | 0 | 67.7 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-02-01 | 0 | 0 | 35.5 | 23.1 | 11 | 24.2 | 48.2 | 0 | 72.2 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2024-02-02 | 0 | 0 | 35.3 | 21.2 | 9 | 22.7 | 45 | 0 | 70.1 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2024-02-03 | 0 | 0 | 35.1 | 22.9 | 11 | 22.8 | 45.4 | 0 | 70 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2024-02-04 | 0 | 0 | 37.2 | 23.3 | 11 | 22.8 | 44.6 | 0 | 70.3 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2024-02-05 | 0 | 0 | 34.7 | 24.1 | 11 | 22.9 | 44.6 | 0.1 | 69.9 | extremo | 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
- 11,280ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 13 Jan 2024 – 26 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 13 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 516
- in a single hotspot: 98 MW
- Danger at start
- 64
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 462MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
13 Jan26 Jan
26 Jan 2024
How it evolved, day by day
13 Jan
17 Jan
22 Jan
25 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
39°high
50km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity
It had gone 59 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,647 ha in 2016, 4,171 ha in 2017, 206 ha in 2018, 154 ha in 2019, 3,043 ha in 2020, 847 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,464 ha that had burned before.
- 3,122 ha Panyikang fire, December 2019 37,773 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,210 ha Baliet fire, December 2017 5,039 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,323 ha Panyikang fire, December 2016 8,094 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 847 ha Panyikang fire, December 2023 22,683 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 198 ha Panyikang fire, November 2016 14,196 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 74 ha Panyikang fire, December 2019 36,315 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
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
-
8,413 ha reached on 15 Jan0.7 %
-
Panyikang where it started2,932 ha reached on 13 Jan0.6 %
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 2025Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
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)
Started with Very dry air: 33 % of the area in South Sudan
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jan | 37.6 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 14 Jan | 38.2 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 15 Jan | 37.1 °C | 11 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 16 Jan | 36.6 °C | 12 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 17 Jan | 36.4 °C | 16 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 18 Jan | 35.7 °C | 12 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 19 Jan | 36.5 °C | 7 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 20 Jan | 36.6 °C | 9 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 21 Jan | 37.3 °C | 10 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 22 Jan | 38.4 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 23 Jan | 39.1 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 24 Jan | 38.8 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 25 Jan | 38.1 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 26 Jan | 35.3 °C | 12 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 27 Jan after | 33.9 °C | 9 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 28 Jan after | 35.9 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 29 Jan after | 35.9 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 30 Jan after | 36.8 °C | 11 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 31 Jan after | 36.0 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 1 Feb after | 35.5 °C | 11 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 2 Feb after | 35.3 °C | 9 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 3 Feb after | 35.1 °C | 11 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 4 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 11 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 5 Feb after | 34.7 °C | 11 % | 45 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 70 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 64.3, a minimum humidity of 13% and 59 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 28.
FWI at the start
64.3
Minimum humidity
13 %
Days without rain
59
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Panyikang fire, January 2024
11,280 ha
14 days
FWI 64.3
Min. humidity 13 %
Nyirol fire, January 2020
5,377 ha
8 days
FWI 64.2
Min. humidity 14 %
51 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Ulang fire, February 2019
7,409 ha
11 days
FWI 64.4
Min. humidity 12 %
72 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Nyirol fire, February 2016
7,633 ha
12 days
FWI 64.4
Min. humidity 14 %
80 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Panyikang fire, December 2022
6,446 ha
14 days
FWI 62.8
Min. humidity 13 %
76 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Akobo fire, February 2023
5,261 ha
7 days
FWI 64.1
Min. humidity 13 %
153 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 11 days
- median duration
- 6,662 ha
- median area
- 25 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 1.4 mm
- rain at the end (median; 2 of 28 had it)
It was 1.7 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 14 days, against 11 days.
Only 6 of its 28 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 26 of 28, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.4 mm.
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
50km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 26 Jan, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 2 of 28, with a median of 1.4 mm.
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 · 6 Jan 2024
After · 2 Feb 2024
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 16 January 2024 the air beside the fire reached 100 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 41: 2.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak100 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM10154 µg/m³
Optical depth1.58
WHO 15
11 Jan15 Jan19 Jan23 Jan
Good
Fair
Moderate
Poor
Very poor
Extremely poor
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 516Every 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
- 36,315 haPanyikang7 December 2019 · 47 days · 15 km away
- 37,773 haPanyikang17 December 2019 · 34 days · 17 km away
- 22,683 haPanyikang13 December 2023 · 28 days · 18 km away
- 29,385 haBaliet14 January 2022 · 26 days · 35 km away
- 23,541 haCanal/Pigi19 December 2019 · 33 days · 36 km away
- 58,196 haPanyikang17 December 2017 · 43 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Panyikang fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 January 2024 to 26 January 2024 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 January 2024 to 23 January 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,280 hectares (112.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Baliet (8,413 ha, 0.7 %); Panyikang (2,932 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, class Very 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: 28. Their median duration was 11 days and their median area 6,662 ha; 25 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 6 of its 28 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 26 of 28, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.4 mm.
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: 23 January 2024 → 26 January 2024.
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 13 January 2024 to 23 January 2024. 516 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 2025, 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.