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Pariang fire, November 2020 Pariang

Out · last detection 23 Nov 2020, 11:25 UTC

The fire started on 16 November 2020 in Pariang, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,339 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 71th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 180 in South Sudan in 2020, of 190.

Burnt area
5,339ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
16 Nov 2020 – 23 Nov 2020
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
16 Nov
2020
Heat detections
180
in a single hotspot: 141 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Nov 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Nov23 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920212223

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
44km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 535 ha in 2016, 1,855 ha in 2017, 880 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,733 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pariang where it started
    5,372 ha reached on 16 Nov
    0.6 %

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)
16 Nov 36.1 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Nov 37.3 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Nov 37.5 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Nov 37.3 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Nov 36.6 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Nov 37.1 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Nov 37.0 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Nov 37.0 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Nov after 37.9 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Nov after 37.6 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Nov after 37.2 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Nov after 37.6 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
28 Nov after 37.2 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Nov after 36.3 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Nov after 35.3 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Dec after 36.1 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Dec after 36.2 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Dec after 36.9 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Nov 2020
After · 30 Nov 2020

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 · 180Every 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 16 November 2020 and 23 November 2020: 8 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 5,339 hectares (53.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pariang (5,372 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.