Pibor fire, 5 January 2022 Pibor, Lafon
The fire started on 5 January 2022 in Pibor, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,115 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 77th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 31 in South Sudan in 2022, of 124.
- Burnt area
- 13,115ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 5 Jan 2022 – 13 Jan 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 5 Jan
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 298
- in a single hotspot: 49 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.0GW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 17 Jan.
This area had burned before
74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,644 ha in 2016, 929 ha in 2017, 4,668 ha in 2018, 3,967 ha in 2020, 4,841 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,667 ha that had burned before.
- 2,773 ha Pibor fire, December 2018 5,134 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,133 ha Lafon fire, February 2021 55,315 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 514 ha Lafon fire, January 2017 7,464 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Pibor where it started8,595 ha reached on 5 Jan0.3 %
-
4,601 ha reached on 6 Jan0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Jan | 36.5 °C | 13 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Jan | 37.9 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 46 |
| 7 Jan | 36.5 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Jan | 37.1 °C | 24 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 9 Jan | 37.7 °C | 21 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 10 Jan | 38.5 °C | 21 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 11 Jan | 38.1 °C | 20 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 12 Jan | 38.7 °C | 19 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 13 Jan | 39.0 °C | 17 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 14 Jan after | 38.4 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 15 Jan after | 37.8 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 16 Jan after | 36.9 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 34 |
| 17 Jan after | 28.1 °C | 58 % | 34 km/h | 3.3 mm | Low 7 |
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 · 298Every 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 Pibor fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 January 2022 and 13 January 2022: 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 13,115 hectares (131.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pibor (8,595 ha, 0.3 %); Lafon (4,601 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 60 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.