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Pariang fire, December 2023 Pariang

Out · last detection 8 Jan 2024, 11:32 UTC

The fire started on 25 December 2023 in Pariang, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,251 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 76th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 100 in South Sudan in 2023, of 106.

Burnt area
5,251ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
25 Dec 2023 – 7 Jan 2024
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
25 Dec
2023
Heat detections
212
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Jan 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Dec7 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2526272829303112345678

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
37km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,172 ha in 2016, 418 ha in 2017, 2,094 ha in 2018, 1,220 ha in 2019, 3,594 ha in 2020, 359 ha in 2021, 1,133 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,012 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pariang where it started
    5,280 ha reached on 22 Dec
    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)
25 Dec 38.1 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Dec 37.4 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
27 Dec 37.5 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Dec 37.3 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Dec 37.1 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
30 Dec 37.1 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
31 Dec 37.2 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Jan 37.4 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Jan 38.8 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
3 Jan 37.4 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
4 Jan 37.4 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Jan 36.3 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
6 Jan 36.8 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
7 Jan 36.5 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
8 Jan after 37.7 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
9 Jan after 38.6 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Jan after 38.9 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Jan after 38.7 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
12 Jan after 37.5 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
13 Jan after 37.9 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Jan after 38.4 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
15 Jan after 37.0 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
16 Jan after 36.3 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
17 Jan after 35.7 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Dec 2023
After · 14 Jan 2024

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 · 212Every 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 25 December 2023 and 7 January 2024: 14 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 5,251 hectares (52.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pariang (5,280 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.