Pariang fire, December 2021 Pariang
The fire started on 31 December 2021 in Pariang, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,185 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 79th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 201 in South Sudan in 2021, of 212.
- Burnt area
- 5,185ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 31 Dec 2021 – 6 Jan 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 31 Dec
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 112
- in a single hotspot: 107 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,139 ha in 2016, 1,109 ha in 2017, 683 ha in 2018, 1,208 ha in 2019, 442 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,609 ha that had burned before.
- 649 ha Rubkona fire, November 2017 32,169 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 460 ha Pariang fire, January 2017 5,267 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 179 ha Pariang fire, December 2020 7,720 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Pariang where it started5,214 ha reached on 31 Dec0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Dec | 37.4 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 1 Jan | 38.2 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 2 Jan | 35.8 °C | 9 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 3 Jan | 34.8 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 4 Jan | 34.1 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 5 Jan | 35.8 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 6 Jan | 37.3 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 7 Jan after | 38.2 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 8 Jan after | 37.8 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 9 Jan after | 39.3 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 10 Jan after | 39.6 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 11 Jan after | 38.9 °C | 16 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 12 Jan after | 40.2 °C | 14 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 13 Jan after | 41.1 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 14 Jan after | 39.1 °C | 16 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 15 Jan after | 38.3 °C | 19 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 16 Jan after | 39.4 °C | 13 % | 26 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.
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 · 112Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Pariang fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 December 2021 and 6 January 2022: 7 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 5,185 hectares (51.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Pariang (5,214 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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.
Report an error
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.