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Raga fire, 4 December 2025 Raga

Out · last detection 23 Jan 2026, 11:50 UTC

The fire started on 4 December 2025 in Raga, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 50 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 97,181 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 8th largest in Western Bahr el Ghazal since 2016 (of 434 with a page). Number 10 in South Sudan in 2025, of 292.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Djema · 2020Djema · 2022Raga · 2016Djema · 2024

Burnt area
97,181ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
50days
4 Dec 2025 – 22 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
4 Dec
2025
Heat detections
4,723
in a single hotspot: 121 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
804MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Dec22 Jan
23 Jan 2026

How it evolved, day by day

4 Dec 2025 · 52 MW · 5 5 Dec 2025 · 20 MW · 4 6 Dec 2025 · 28 MW · 2 8 Dec 2025 · 277 MW · 5 9 Dec 2025 · 24 MW · 10 10 Dec 2025 · 552 MW · 56 11 Dec 2025 · 370 MW · 32 12 Dec 2025 · 485 MW · 52 13 Dec 2025 · 294 MW · 39 14 Dec 2025 · 508 MW · 39 15 Dec 2025 · 418 MW · 55 16 Dec 2025 · 142 MW · 21 17 Dec 2025 · 489 MW · 60 18 Dec 2025 · 647 MW · 54 19 Dec 2025 · 542 MW · 90 20 Dec 2025 · 315 MW · 39 21 Dec 2025 · 1,254 MW · 124 22 Dec 2025 · 1,305 MW · 141 23 Dec 2025 · 1,064 MW · 89 24 Dec 2025 · 177 MW · 43 25 Dec 2025 · 552 MW · 61 26 Dec 2025 · 615 MW · 41 27 Dec 2025 · 1,014 MW · 91 28 Dec 2025 · 952 MW · 94 29 Dec 2025 · 1,192 MW · 104 30 Dec 2025 · 79 MW · 31 31 Dec 2025 · 1,472 MW · 194 1 Jan 2026 · 2,399 MW · 248 2 Jan 2026 · 3,192 MW · 403 3 Jan 2026 · 3,117 MW · 416 4 Jan 2026 · 1,339 MW · 322 5 Jan 2026 · 1,343 MW · 146 6 Jan 2026 · 2,418 MW · 246 7 Jan 2026 · 4,122 MW · 357 8 Jan 2026 · 1,939 MW · 273 9 Jan 2026 · 650 MW · 160 10 Jan 2026 · 5 MW · 4 11 Jan 2026 · 97 MW · 14 12 Jan 2026 · 535 MW · 66 13 Jan 2026 · 514 MW · 72 14 Jan 2026 · 699 MW · 148 15 Jan 2026 · 215 MW · 26 17 Jan 2026 · 3 MW · 1 18 Jan 2026 · 1,064 MW · 95 19 Jan 2026 · 363 MW · 73 20 Jan 2026 · 134 MW · 42 21 Jan 2026 · 57 MW · 8 22 Jan 2026 · 316 MW · 23 23 Jan 2026 · 24 MW · 4
4 Dec 12 Dec 19 Dec 26 Dec 2 Jan 7 Jan 9 Jan 17 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

37°high
44km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 39,692 ha in 2016, 31,137 ha in 2017, 8,925 ha in 2018, 29,864 ha in 2019, 41,555 ha in 2020, 35,380 ha in 2021, 35,535 ha in 2022, 6,596 ha in 2023, 64,850 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 93,730 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 61% of the area of London (972 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
    65,079 ha reached on 4 Dec
    1.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area0.12 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.12 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
4 Dec 33.6 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Dec 34.1 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Dec 33.2 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Dec 34.3 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Dec 35.0 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Dec 33.0 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Dec 32.2 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Dec 31.9 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Dec 32.8 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Dec 32.5 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Dec 31.8 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Dec 30.7 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Dec 29.7 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Dec 30.5 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Dec 31.1 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Dec 31.3 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Dec 32.9 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Dec 33.2 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Dec 33.6 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Dec 32.3 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Dec 33.1 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Dec 35.2 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Dec 34.6 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Dec 34.6 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Dec 33.3 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
29 Dec 33.0 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Dec 33.0 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Dec 32.0 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Jan 33.2 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Jan 34.9 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Jan 34.6 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Jan 34.1 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Jan 34.0 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Jan 33.7 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Jan 33.7 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Jan 34.7 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Jan 34.3 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
10 Jan 32.5 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Jan 33.2 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Jan 33.9 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Jan 33.0 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Jan 31.9 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Jan 31.8 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Jan 31.5 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
17 Jan 34.0 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Jan 34.1 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Jan 34.4 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan 34.7 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Jan 35.4 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Jan 36.7 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Jan after 36.4 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Jan after 36.6 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Jan after 36.6 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Jan after 36.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Jan after 36.4 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Jan after 35.1 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Jan after 34.0 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Jan after 35.0 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Jan after 35.7 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Feb after 34.8 °C 11 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Nov 2025
After · 29 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 18 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 65 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 52: 3.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak65 µg/m³
Days over the guideline41 days
PM10153 µg/m³
Optical depth0.66
678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718
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 · 4,723Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 December 2025 to 22 January 2026 (50 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 December 2025 to 15 January 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 97,181 hectares (971.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Raga (65,079 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 15 January 2026 → 22 January 2026.
  2. Start date: 8 December 2025 → 4 December 2025.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 8 December 2025 to 15 January 2026. 4,723 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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.