Skip to content
worldfires
en
SS · South Sudan · →

Raga fire, 5 December 2016 Raga

Out · last detection 4 Jan 2017, 11:32 UTC

The fire started on 5 December 2016 in Raga, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 36,885 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 30th largest in Western Bahr el Ghazal since 2016 (of 424 with a page). Number 12 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Raga · 2018Raga · 2025Raga · 2020Djema · 2025

Burnt area
36,885ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
30days
5 Dec 2016 – 3 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
5 Dec
2016
Heat detections
1,530
in a single hotspot: 148 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Average daily power
321MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Dec3 Jan
4 Jan 2017

How it evolved, day by day

5 Dec 2016 · 118 MW · 15 6 Dec 2016 · 7 MW · 6 7 Dec 2016 · 623 MW · 84 8 Dec 2016 · 367 MW · 61 9 Dec 2016 · 861 MW · 157 10 Dec 2016 · 614 MW · 98 11 Dec 2016 · 550 MW · 92 12 Dec 2016 · 953 MW · 117 13 Dec 2016 · 1,041 MW · 137 14 Dec 2016 · 29 MW · 28 15 Dec 2016 · 178 MW · 39 16 Dec 2016 · 49 MW · 13 17 Dec 2016 · 153 MW · 20 18 Dec 2016 · 338 MW · 16 19 Dec 2016 · 297 MW · 30 20 Dec 2016 · 41 MW · 24 21 Dec 2016 · 114 MW · 46 22 Dec 2016 · 407 MW · 62 23 Dec 2016 · 1,828 MW · 126 24 Dec 2016 · 536 MW · 68 25 Dec 2016 · 152 MW · 21 26 Dec 2016 · 24 MW · 20 27 Dec 2016 · 225 MW · 41 28 Dec 2016 · 26 MW · 8 29 Dec 2016 · 40 MW · 10 30 Dec 2016 · 33 MW · 11 31 Dec 2016 · 25 MW · 11 1 Jan 2017 · 37 MW · 13 2 Jan 2017 · 108 MW · 13 3 Jan 2017 · 105 MW · 16 4 Jan 2017 · 63 MW · 10
5 Dec 10 Dec 15 Dec 20 Dec 23 Dec 25 Dec 30 Dec 4 Jan

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
46km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 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.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 23% of the area of London (369 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Raga where it started
    37,038 ha reached on 2 Dec
    0.6 %

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)
2 Dec 33.3 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Dec 34.2 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Dec 34.1 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Dec 34.9 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Dec 35.4 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Dec 34.3 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Dec 34.5 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Dec 34.0 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Dec 34.4 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Dec 33.7 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Dec 34.2 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Dec 34.6 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Dec 33.5 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Dec 32.2 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Dec 32.7 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Dec 32.6 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Dec 32.6 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Dec 32.9 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Dec 33.5 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Dec 34.5 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Dec 34.4 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Dec 35.6 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Dec 35.7 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Dec 34.4 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Dec 33.2 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Dec 32.3 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Dec 32.7 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Dec 34.6 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Dec 34.7 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Dec 34.3 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Jan 35.3 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Jan 34.3 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Jan 33.5 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Jan after 33.8 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Jan after 33.8 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Jan after 35.8 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Jan after 36.1 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Jan after 35.5 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Jan after 34.3 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
10 Jan after 35.3 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Jan after 35.9 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Jan after 36.2 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Jan after 36.1 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Jan after 36.8 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Jan after 37.7 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Nov 2016
After · 10 Jan 2017

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 · 1,530Every 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 5 December 2016 and 3 January 2017: 30 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 36,885 hectares (368.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Raga (37,038 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,530 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.