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Pibor fire, 21 November 2025 Pibor

Out · last detection 27 Dec 2025, 11:55 UTC

The fire started on 21 November 2025 in Pibor, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 47,134 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 21 in South Sudan in 2025, of 292.

Burnt area
47,134ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
36days
21 Nov 2025 – 26 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
21 Nov
2025
Heat detections
1,304
in a single hotspot: 134 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
12.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Dec 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Nov26 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526272829301234567891011121314151617181920212224252627

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

37°high
50km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,885 ha in 2016, 588 ha in 2017, 123 ha in 2018, 6,510 ha in 2020, 13,103 ha in 2021, 3,351 ha in 2022, 3,087 ha in 2023, 16,186 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 29,631 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pibor where it started
    47,493 ha reached on 17 Nov
    1.4 %

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 Nov 35.3 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
22 Nov 35.7 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Nov 35.9 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Nov 35.6 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Nov 36.2 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Nov 35.7 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Nov 35.1 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Nov 35.0 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Nov 35.4 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Nov 35.8 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Dec 36.5 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Dec 36.3 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Dec 35.7 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Dec 36.5 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Dec 35.7 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Dec 36.0 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Dec 35.8 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Dec 36.6 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Dec 35.1 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
10 Dec 34.6 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Dec 34.6 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Dec 33.9 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Dec 33.7 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Dec 33.4 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Dec 32.9 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
16 Dec 32.8 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Dec 33.8 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Dec 33.0 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Dec 32.7 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Dec 34.7 °C 22 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Dec 34.1 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Dec 33.6 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
23 Dec 33.8 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Dec 36.6 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Dec 36.4 °C 24 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Dec 36.3 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Dec after 36.1 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Dec after 35.4 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Dec after 34.1 °C 20 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Dec after 33.4 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Dec after 34.1 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Jan after 35.1 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Jan after 33.0 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
3 Jan after 35.8 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Jan after 35.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Jan after 36.0 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 14 Nov 2025
After · 2 Jan 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 27 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 82 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 52: 3.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak82 µg/m³
Days over the guideline21 days
PM1084 µg/m³
Optical depth1.19
1920212223242526272829301234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 1,304Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in South Sudan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pibor fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 November 2025 and 26 December 2025: 36 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 47,134 hectares (471.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pibor (47,493 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very 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.

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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.