Pibor fire, May 2023 Pibor
The fire started on 20 May 2023 in Pibor, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,137 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 179th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 50 in South Sudan in 2023, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 8,137ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 20 May 2023 – 6 Jun 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 20 May
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 362
- in a single hotspot: 77 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · 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 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 9 Jun.
This area had burned before
70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,593 ha in 2016, 97 ha in 2017, 4,371 ha in 2019, 2,613 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,687 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Pibor where it started8,195 ha reached on 20 May0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 May | 37.6 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 21 May | 37.6 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 22 May | 39.5 °C | 24 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 May | 37.7 °C | 30 % | 46 km/h | 1.4 mm | High 34 |
| 24 May | 35.5 °C | 36 % | 45 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 34 |
| 25 May | 38.8 °C | 24 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 May | 39.1 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 43 |
| 27 May | 37.4 °C | 27 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 28 May | 35.1 °C | 24 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 29 May | 37.7 °C | 19 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 30 May | 38.3 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 31 May | 38.1 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Jun | 38.9 °C | 22 % | 39 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 47 |
| 2 Jun | 38.4 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 41 |
| 3 Jun | 39.0 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 Jun | 38.4 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 5 Jun | 39.5 °C | 22 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 6 Jun | 35.3 °C | 35 % | 27 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Jun after | 37.6 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 35 |
| 8 Jun after | 37.3 °C | 28 % | 20 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 35 |
| 9 Jun after | 36.7 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 1.8 mm | High 25 |
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 · 362Every 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 20 May 2023 and 6 June 2023: 18 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 8,137 hectares (81.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Pibor (8,195 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.