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Raga fire, 11 January 2016 Raga, Aweil Centre

Out · last detection 30 Jan 2016, 11:08 UTC

The fire started on 11 January 2016 in Raga, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,779 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 59th largest in Western Bahr el Ghazal since 2016 (of 424 with a page). Number 26 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
21,779ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
11 Jan 2016 – 30 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
11 Jan
2016
Heat detections
720
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jan30 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415161718192021222324252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
40km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Raga where it started
    21,549 ha reached on 4 Jan
    0.4 %
  2. Aweil Centre
    342 ha reached on 19 Jan
    0.0 %

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)
11 Jan 36.3 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Jan 36.4 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Jan 36.3 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Jan 36.2 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Jan 35.8 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Jan 35.5 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Jan 37.1 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Jan 38.2 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Jan 35.4 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Jan 34.9 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Jan 36.0 °C 6 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Jan 37.5 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Jan 36.7 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Jan 36.0 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
25 Jan 32.3 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
26 Jan 31.5 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Jan 30.5 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
28 Jan 30.3 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Jan 30.1 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Jan 30.9 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Jan after 32.8 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Feb after 34.4 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Feb after 34.8 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
3 Feb after 35.6 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Feb after 37.3 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Feb after 39.1 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
6 Feb after 38.0 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
7 Feb after 35.5 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
8 Feb after 35.7 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
9 Feb after 36.1 °C 7 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Jan 2016
After · 6 Feb 2016

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 · 720Every 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 Raga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 January 2016 and 30 January 2016: 20 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 21,779 hectares (217.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Raga (21,549 ha, 0.4 %); Aweil Centre (342 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.

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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.