Pariang fire, May 2026 Pariang
The fire started on 26 May 2026 in Pariang, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,375 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 32th largest in Unity since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 83 in South Sudan in 2026, of 182.
- Burnt area
- 7,375ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 26 May 2026 – 31 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 26 May
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 118
- in a single hotspot: 102 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.7GW
- 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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 5 Jun.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,100 ha in 2016, 1,896 ha in 2017, 1,245 ha in 2018, 2,398 ha in 2019, 1,406 ha in 2020, 3,782 ha in 2024, 1,835 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,277 ha that had burned before.
- 1,750 ha Pariang fire, November 2016 5,866 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,083 ha Pariang fire, November 2017 19,330 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 169 ha Pariang fire, November 2017 11,503 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Pariang where it started7,418 ha reached on 25 May0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 May | 36.9 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
| 27 May | 36.8 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 28 May | 35.3 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 May | 36.3 °C | 29 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 May | 36.6 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 31 May | 37.0 °C | 28 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Jun after | 35.5 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Jun after | 36.4 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Jun after | 34.7 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Jun after | 36.0 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Jun after | 35.5 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 2.7 mm | High 24 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 29 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 118Every 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 26 May 2026 and 31 May 2026: 6 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 7,375 hectares (73.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Pariang (7,418 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
- 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.