Pibor fire, March 2024 Pibor
The fire started on 15 March 2024 in Pibor, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,050 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 417th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 176 in South Sudan in 2024, of 180.
- Burnt area
- 5,050ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 15 Mar 2024 – 20 Mar 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 15 Mar
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 199
- in a single hotspot: 88 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 24 Mar.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,691 ha in 2016, 904 ha in 2017, 4,558 ha in 2019, 437 ha in 2020, 1,782 ha in 2021, 829 ha in 2022, 1,974 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,060 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Pibor where it started5,079 ha reached on 15 Mar0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Mar | 38.4 °C | 21 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 16 Mar | 37.4 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Mar | 37.7 °C | 21 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 18 Mar | 36.8 °C | 22 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 19 Mar | 36.7 °C | 25 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 20 Mar | 36.5 °C | 24 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 21 Mar after | 37.1 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Mar after | 36.0 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Mar after | 36.7 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Mar after | 35.2 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 2.1 mm | High 22 |
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 16 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 52 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.1 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 · 199Every 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 15 March 2024 and 20 March 2024: 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 5,050 hectares (50.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Pibor (5,079 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 52 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.