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Ulang fire, 6 March 2022 Ulang, Luakpiny/Nasir, Akobo

Out · last detection 4 Apr 2022, 11:06 UTC

The fire started on 6 March 2022 in Ulang, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 83,713 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Upper Nile since 2016 (of 284 with a page). The largest in South Sudan in 2022, of 124.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ulang · 2019Ulang · 2016Ulang · 2017Akobo · 2022

Burnt area
83,713ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
30days
6 Mar 2022 – 4 Apr 2022
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
6 Mar
2022
Heat detections
4,725
in a single hotspot: 220 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
1.6GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Mar4 Apr
4 Apr 2022

How it evolved, day by day

6 Mar 2022 · 168 MW · 29 7 Mar 2022 · 1,227 MW · 92 8 Mar 2022 · 1,532 MW · 104 9 Mar 2022 · 1,653 MW · 148 10 Mar 2022 · 2,557 MW · 252 11 Mar 2022 · 739 MW · 167 12 Mar 2022 · 1,070 MW · 119 13 Mar 2022 · 1,066 MW · 140 14 Mar 2022 · 710 MW · 68 15 Mar 2022 · 2,482 MW · 261 16 Mar 2022 · 1,706 MW · 273 17 Mar 2022 · 607 MW · 149 18 Mar 2022 · 1,127 MW · 94 19 Mar 2022 · 3,315 MW · 315 20 Mar 2022 · 3,753 MW · 298 21 Mar 2022 · 5,727 MW · 493 22 Mar 2022 · 2,516 MW · 270 23 Mar 2022 · 1,846 MW · 133 24 Mar 2022 · 1,410 MW · 132 25 Mar 2022 · 2,130 MW · 143 26 Mar 2022 · 2,669 MW · 158 27 Mar 2022 · 2,014 MW · 237 28 Mar 2022 · 2,192 MW · 116 29 Mar 2022 · 1,009 MW · 91 30 Mar 2022 · 218 MW · 31 31 Mar 2022 · 751 MW · 71 1 Apr 2022 · 390 MW · 60 2 Apr 2022 · 418 MW · 53 3 Apr 2022 · 571 MW · 34 4 Apr 2022 · 167 MW · 13
6 Mar 11 Mar 16 Mar 21 Mar 26 Mar 31 Mar

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
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 47 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 11 Apr.

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10,293 ha in 2016, 66,279 ha in 2017, 22,121 ha in 2018, 38,132 ha in 2019, 4,279 ha in 2020, 16,316 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 66,001 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 53% of the area of London (837 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
    75,478 ha reached on 27 Feb
    16 %
  2. Luakpiny/Nasir
    8,005 ha reached on 27 Feb
    1.5 %
  3. Akobo
    718 ha reached on 13 Mar
    0.1 %

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 area0.63 ha
Residents≈ 1,500

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.63 hectares of built-up land and about 1,500 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)
6 Mar 41.5 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Mar 42.1 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Mar 42.4 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
9 Mar 41.3 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
10 Mar 41.5 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
11 Mar 40.8 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Mar 40.6 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Mar 40.7 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Mar 41.0 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
15 Mar 40.0 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
16 Mar 38.7 °C 10 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
17 Mar 38.1 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
18 Mar 38.8 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
19 Mar 39.4 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Mar 40.3 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
21 Mar 40.6 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Mar 41.2 °C 11 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Mar 39.2 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
24 Mar 40.9 °C 14 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Mar 41.2 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Mar 40.7 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
27 Mar 39.8 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
28 Mar 39.0 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Mar 39.7 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Mar 39.7 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Mar 40.3 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Apr 40.6 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
2 Apr 40.3 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
3 Apr 39.6 °C 24 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
4 Apr 39.7 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.7 mm Extreme 53
5 Apr after 39.9 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 55
6 Apr after 39.4 °C 24 % 51 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 56
7 Apr after 39.2 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 61
8 Apr after 39.2 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 47
9 Apr after 40.9 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.6 mm Extreme 52
10 Apr after 41.1 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.9 mm Extreme 54
11 Apr after 32.4 °C 37 % 49 km/h 1.2 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 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 · 4,725Every 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 6 March 2022 and 4 April 2022: 30 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 83,713 hectares (837.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ulang (75,478 ha, 16 %); Luakpiny/Nasir (8,005 ha, 1.5 %); Akobo (718 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 42.4 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 76, 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. 4,725 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.