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Pariang fire, December 2020 Pariang

Out · last detection 2 Jan 2021, 10:35 UTC

The fire started on 24 December 2020 in Pariang, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,720 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 29th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 88 in South Sudan in 2020, of 190.

Burnt area
7,720ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
24 Dec 2020 – 1 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
24 Dec
2020
Heat detections
250
in a single hotspot: 109 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Jan 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Dec1 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2426272829303112

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
35km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,396 ha in 2016, 3,667 ha in 2017, 3,876 ha in 2018, 729 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,700 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pariang where it started
    7,764 ha reached on 24 Dec
    0.9 %

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)
24 Dec 38.4 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Dec 38.8 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Dec 38.4 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Dec 37.9 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Dec 38.3 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Dec 38.3 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Dec 38.7 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Dec 38.8 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Jan 37.7 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Jan after 37.7 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Jan after 38.4 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Jan after 38.5 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
5 Jan after 38.7 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
6 Jan after 38.9 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
7 Jan after 38.5 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
8 Jan after 37.5 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
9 Jan after 37.1 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Jan after 36.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
11 Jan after 36.7 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Dec 2020
After · 8 Jan 2021

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 · 250Every 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 24 December 2020 and 1 January 2021: 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 7,720 hectares (77.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pariang (7,764 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.