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Ulang fire, January 2018 Ulang, Baliet

Out · last detection 17 Jan 2018, 11:44 UTC

The fire started on 15 January 2018 in Ulang, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,118 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 278th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). Number 116 in South Sudan in 2018, of 120.

Burnt area
5,118ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
15 Jan 2018 – 16 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
15 Jan
2018
Heat detections
186
in a single hotspot: 126 MW
Danger at start
71
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jan16 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

151617

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
49km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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
    3,056 ha reached on 15 Jan
    0.6 %
  2. Baliet
    2,098 ha reached on 15 Jan
    0.2 %

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)
15 Jan 37.8 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
16 Jan 37.2 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
17 Jan after 37.4 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
18 Jan after 37.7 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
19 Jan after 37.6 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
20 Jan after 37.7 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
21 Jan after 38.8 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
22 Jan after 39.0 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
23 Jan after 38.8 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
24 Jan after 37.9 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
25 Jan after 37.8 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
26 Jan after 37.6 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jan 2018
After · 23 Jan 2018

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 · 186Every 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 15 January 2018 and 16 January 2018: 2 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 5,118 hectares (51.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ulang (3,056 ha, 0.6 %); Baliet (2,098 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 71, class Very 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.