Pibor fire, 25 January 2022 Pibor
The fire started on 25 January 2022 in Pibor, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 32,332 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 9th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 8 in South Sudan in 2022, of 124.
- Burnt area
- 32,332ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 25 Jan 2022 – 9 Feb 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 25 Jan
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 704
- in a single hotspot: 72 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.1GW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13,770 ha in 2016, 5,339 ha in 2017, 5,864 ha in 2018, 4,553 ha in 2019, 3,577 ha in 2020, 14,359 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 26,511 ha that had burned before.
- 4,513 ha Dima fire, January 2021 10,202 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,037 ha Pibor fire, January 2019 5,092 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,952 ha Dima fire, December 2017 5,317 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,741 ha Dima fire, February 2021 7,883 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,308 ha Dima fire, January 2018 2,635 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 925 ha Dima fire, January 2016 4,481 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 526 ha Pibor fire, February 2021 12,417 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 410 ha Pibor fire, January 2019 10,415 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Pibor where it started20,843 ha reached on 25 Jan0.6 %
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 Jan | 35.5 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Jan | 35.2 °C | 31 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 27 Jan | 35.4 °C | 29 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 28 Jan | 35.6 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 29 Jan | 36.1 °C | 27 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Jan | 35.9 °C | 28 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 31 Jan | 36.3 °C | 25 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Feb | 36.0 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 2 Feb | 36.0 °C | 28 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Feb | 35.2 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 4 Feb | 35.0 °C | 27 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 5 Feb | 36.9 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 29 |
| 6 Feb | 34.9 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Feb | 34.8 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Feb | 36.3 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Feb | 36.6 °C | 22 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 10 Feb after | 36.9 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Feb after | 36.5 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 12 Feb after | 35.1 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Feb after | 35.1 °C | 27 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 14 Feb after | 36.8 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Feb after | 37.1 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 16 Feb after | 36.8 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 17 Feb after | 37.5 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Feb after | 37.8 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 19 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
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 · 704Every 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 25 January 2022 and 9 February 2022: 16 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 32,332 hectares (323.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Pibor (20,843 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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.