Skip to content
worldfires
en
SS · South Sudan · →

Tonj South fire, 3 December 2016 Tonj South, Wulu

Out · last detection 3 Jan 2017, 11:50 UTC

The fire started on 3 December 2016 in Tonj South, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 108,462 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

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 largest fire in Warrap since 2016 (of 49 with a page). Number 7 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Tonj South · 2020Nagero · 2020Tonj South · 2025Wulu · 2017

Burnt area
108,462ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
32days
3 Dec 2016 – 3 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
3 Dec
2016
Heat detections
4,332
in a single hotspot: 213 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Average daily power
1.5GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Dec3 Jan
3 Jan 2017

How it evolved, day by day

3 Dec 2016 · 842 MW · 65 4 Dec 2016 · 293 MW · 40 5 Dec 2016 · 3,677 MW · 146 6 Dec 2016 · 3,038 MW · 187 7 Dec 2016 · 2,277 MW · 159 8 Dec 2016 · 3,051 MW · 196 9 Dec 2016 · 2,971 MW · 220 10 Dec 2016 · 565 MW · 119 11 Dec 2016 · 399 MW · 42 12 Dec 2016 · 1,483 MW · 203 13 Dec 2016 · 2,466 MW · 209 14 Dec 2016 · 7,102 MW · 471 15 Dec 2016 · 1,554 MW · 296 16 Dec 2016 · 2,795 MW · 234 17 Dec 2016 · 2,972 MW · 216 18 Dec 2016 · 3,786 MW · 377 19 Dec 2016 · 3,331 MW · 322 20 Dec 2016 · 1,632 MW · 259 21 Dec 2016 · 416 MW · 85 22 Dec 2016 · 733 MW · 79 23 Dec 2016 · 520 MW · 53 24 Dec 2016 · 146 MW · 19 25 Dec 2016 · 452 MW · 104 26 Dec 2016 · 1,576 MW · 104 27 Dec 2016 · 123 MW · 17 28 Dec 2016 · 3 MW · 2 29 Dec 2016 · 54 MW · 9 30 Dec 2016 · 140 MW · 17 31 Dec 2016 · 105 MW · 39 1 Jan 2017 · 57 MW · 15 2 Jan 2017 · 27 MW · 6 3 Jan 2017 · 118 MW · 22
3 Dec 8 Dec 13 Dec 14 Dec 18 Dec 23 Dec 28 Dec 2 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

38°high
44km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 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 68% of the area of London (1,085 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. Tonj South where it started
    65,973 ha reached on 3 Dec
    8.8 %
  2. Wulu
    43,133 ha reached on 3 Dec
    3.6 %

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 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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.

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)
3 Dec 34.4 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
4 Dec 33.8 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
5 Dec 36.1 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Dec 36.0 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Dec 35.0 °C 22 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Dec 36.2 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Dec 35.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Dec 36.5 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Dec 36.1 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Dec 35.5 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Dec 35.1 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Dec 35.2 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Dec 34.3 °C 19 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Dec 35.1 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Dec 35.4 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Dec 35.6 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Dec 35.9 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Dec 36.2 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Dec 36.3 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Dec 36.9 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Dec 36.4 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Dec 36.7 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Dec 37.5 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Dec 36.0 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Dec 35.7 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Dec 35.7 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Dec 36.8 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Dec 37.1 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Dec 37.4 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Jan 37.4 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Jan 37.3 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Jan 36.8 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Jan after 36.9 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Jan after 36.2 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Jan after 37.4 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Jan after 37.7 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Jan after 38.1 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Jan after 37.1 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
10 Jan after 37.3 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Jan after 37.8 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
12 Jan after 38.0 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
13 Jan after 38.2 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 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 · 4,332Every 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 Tonj South fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 December 2016 to 3 January 2017 (32 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 December 2016 to 27 December 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 108,462 hectares (1,084.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tonj South (65,973 ha, 8.8 %); Wulu (43,133 ha, 3.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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: 27 December 2016 → 3 January 2017.
  2. Start date: 5 December 2016 → 3 December 2016.

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.

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; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 5 December 2016 to 27 December 2016. 4,332 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 2015, 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.