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Ulang fire, 27 February 2022 Ulang, Luakpiny/Nasir

Out · last detection 5 Apr 2022, 23:23 UTC

The fire started on 27 February 2022 in Ulang, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 37 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 31,907 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 16th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 285 with a page). Number 9 in South Sudan in 2022, of 124.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ulang · 2021Ulang · 2025Luakpiny/Nasir · 2016Ulang · 2022

Burnt area
31,907ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
37days
27 Feb 2022 – 4 Apr 2022
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
27 Feb
2022
Heat detections
2,269
in a single hotspot: 111 MW
Danger at start
66
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
502MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Feb4 Apr
5 Apr 2022

How it evolved, day by day

27 Feb 2022 · 53 MW · 13 28 Feb 2022 · 50 MW · 6 1 Mar 2022 · 28 MW · 6 2 Mar 2022 · 99 MW · 6 4 Mar 2022 · 24 MW · 4 5 Mar 2022 · 222 MW · 23 6 Mar 2022 · 279 MW · 35 7 Mar 2022 · 707 MW · 83 8 Mar 2022 · 598 MW · 44 9 Mar 2022 · 375 MW · 38 10 Mar 2022 · 454 MW · 51 11 Mar 2022 · 12 MW · 7 12 Mar 2022 · 40 MW · 5 13 Mar 2022 · 261 MW · 40 14 Mar 2022 · 22 MW · 6 15 Mar 2022 · 132 MW · 42 16 Mar 2022 · 448 MW · 121 17 Mar 2022 · 387 MW · 76 18 Mar 2022 · 651 MW · 87 19 Mar 2022 · 794 MW · 102 20 Mar 2022 · 926 MW · 93 21 Mar 2022 · 362 MW · 56 22 Mar 2022 · 1,328 MW · 135 23 Mar 2022 · 561 MW · 49 24 Mar 2022 · 992 MW · 107 25 Mar 2022 · 1,226 MW · 110 26 Mar 2022 · 1,518 MW · 261 27 Mar 2022 · 793 MW · 92 28 Mar 2022 · 791 MW · 103 29 Mar 2022 · 1,331 MW · 141 30 Mar 2022 · 713 MW · 58 31 Mar 2022 · 438 MW · 48 1 Apr 2022 · 488 MW · 64 2 Apr 2022 · 226 MW · 35 3 Apr 2022 · 841 MW · 76 4 Apr 2022 · 386 MW · 43 5 Apr 2022 · 6 MW · 3
27 Feb 6 Mar 12 Mar 18 Mar 24 Mar 26 Mar 30 Mar 5 Apr

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
54km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 5 Apr.

This area had burned before

63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,786 ha in 2016, 6,165 ha in 2017, 4,988 ha in 2018, 5,819 ha in 2019, 3,860 ha in 2020, 16,310 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 20,039 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 20% of the area of London (319 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. Ulang where it started
    27,882 ha reached on 27 Feb
    5.7 %
  2. Luakpiny/Nasir
    4,243 ha reached on 4 Mar
    0.8 %

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 2020
Built-up area0.81 ha
Residents≈ 1,400

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.81 hectares of built-up land and about 1,400 residents (GHSL 2020, 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)
27 Feb 40.5 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
28 Feb 41.0 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
1 Mar 39.8 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 55
2 Mar 40.9 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Mar 39.4 °C 21 % 50 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 66
4 Mar 40.3 °C 15 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Mar 42.1 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Mar 41.5 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Mar 42.1 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Mar 42.3 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
9 Mar 41.5 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
10 Mar 41.7 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
11 Mar 41.2 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Mar 40.8 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Mar 40.8 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
14 Mar 40.9 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
15 Mar 40.1 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
16 Mar 38.4 °C 10 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 80
17 Mar 38.1 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
18 Mar 38.6 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Mar 39.3 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Mar 40.7 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
21 Mar 41.6 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Mar 42.0 °C 8 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Mar 39.5 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
24 Mar 40.7 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Mar 41.4 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
26 Mar 40.9 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
27 Mar 39.9 °C 7 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
28 Mar 39.2 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Mar 40.1 °C 9 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Mar 40.5 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Mar 40.4 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Apr 41.2 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
2 Apr 40.5 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
3 Apr 40.0 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
4 Apr 39.7 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 58
5 Apr after 39.9 °C 26 % 41 km/h 1.1 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Feb 2022
After · 11 Apr 2022

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 · 2,269Every 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 27 February 2022 and 4 April 2022: 37 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 31,907 hectares (319.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ulang (27,882 ha, 5.7 %); Luakpiny/Nasir (4,243 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 42.3 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 80, 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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

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; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 2,269 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 2020, 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.