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Pariang fire, March 2016 Guit, Pariang

Out · last detection 26 Mar 2016, 22:52 UTC

The fire started on 18 March 2016 in Pariang, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,062 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 26th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 102 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
8,062ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
18 Mar 2016 – 26 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
18 Mar
2016
Heat detections
262
in a single hotspot: 245 MW
Danger at start
62
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
5.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Mar26 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

181920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

44°high
45km/h · peak gust
3%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Guit
    5,157 ha reached on 20 Mar
    1.5 %
  2. Pariang where it started
    2,958 ha reached on 18 Mar
    0.3 %

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)
18 Mar 42.0 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
19 Mar 41.8 °C 7 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
20 Mar 43.3 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
21 Mar 43.8 °C 5 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
22 Mar 41.9 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
23 Mar 41.5 °C 6 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
24 Mar 42.5 °C 3 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
25 Mar 43.0 °C 5 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
26 Mar 39.2 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
27 Mar after 43.4 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Mar after 43.3 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Mar after 42.8 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Mar after 42.3 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Mar after 42.0 °C 7 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
1 Apr after 41.0 °C 6 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
2 Apr after 40.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
3 Apr after 41.5 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
4 Apr after 41.2 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Apr after 41.4 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Mar 2016
After · 2 Apr 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 · 262Every 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 Pariang fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 March 2016 and 26 March 2016: 9 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 8,062 hectares (80.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guit (5,157 ha, 1.5 %); Pariang (2,958 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 43.8 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 77, 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.

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.