Pibor fire, 21 January 2023 Pibor
The fire started on 21 January 2023 in Pibor, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,769 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 152th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 42 in South Sudan in 2023, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 8,769ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 21 Jan 2023 – 23 Jan 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 21 Jan
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 282
- in a single hotspot: 228 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.8GW
- 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 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,059 ha in 2016, 1,047 ha in 2017, 3,841 ha in 2018, 872 ha in 2019, 1,694 ha in 2020, 1,891 ha in 2021, 249 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,365 ha that had burned before.
- 3,072 ha Pibor fire, December 2018 43,938 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,059 ha Pibor fire, January 2016 6,823 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,694 ha Pibor fire, February 2020 7,024 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9 ha Pibor fire, March 2021 7,549 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Pibor where it started8,820 ha reached on 21 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jan | 38.8 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 22 Jan | 37.5 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Jan | 38.2 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 24 Jan after | 37.8 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 25 Jan after | 37.2 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 26 Jan after | 37.5 °C | 22 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Jan after | 38.5 °C | 16 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 28 Jan after | 39.1 °C | 16 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 29 Jan after | 39.1 °C | 16 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 30 Jan after | 38.3 °C | 19 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 31 Jan after | 37.4 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 1 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 25 % | 47 km/h | 0.8 mm | Very high 49 |
| 2 Feb after | 37.8 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
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 · 282Every 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 21 January 2023 and 23 January 2023: 3 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 8,769 hectares (87.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Pibor (8,820 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.