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Ulang fire, 5 January 2016 Ulang, Luakpiny/Nasir

Out · last detection 17 Jan 2016, 22:47 UTC

The fire started on 5 January 2016 in Ulang, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,948 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 87th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 75 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
9,948ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
5 Jan 2016 – 16 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
5 Jan
2016
Heat detections
466
in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Jan16 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

567891011121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
45km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 34 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. Ulang where it started
    8,509 ha reached on 2 Jan
    1.8 %
  2. Luakpiny/Nasir
    1,500 ha reached on 2 Jan
    0.3 %

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)
5 Jan 37.7 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
6 Jan 36.5 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
7 Jan 38.8 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Jan 39.6 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Jan 39.1 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Jan 38.5 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
11 Jan 38.5 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Jan 38.7 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Jan 38.8 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Jan 38.5 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
15 Jan 37.7 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
16 Jan 38.0 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Jan after 39.3 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Jan after 39.3 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Jan after 37.7 °C 10 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
20 Jan after 37.9 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
21 Jan after 37.9 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Jan after 38.2 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Jan after 39.5 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
24 Jan after 38.5 °C 15 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
25 Jan after 36.4 °C 13 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
26 Jan after 35.7 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Dec 2015
After · 23 Jan 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 · 466Every 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 Ulang fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 January 2016 and 16 January 2016: 12 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 9,948 hectares (99.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ulang (8,509 ha, 1.8 %); Luakpiny/Nasir (1,500 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.