Uror fire, January 2019 Uror
The fire started on 1 January 2019 in Uror, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,918 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 107th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 48 in South Sudan in 2019, of 150.
- Burnt area
- 10,918ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 1 Jan 2019 – 4 Jan 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 1 Jan
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 215
- in a single hotspot: 78 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 51 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,626 ha in 2016, 2,609 ha in 2017, 1,555 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,522 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Uror where it started10,991 ha reached on 1 Jan0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | 35.7 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 2 Jan | 37.5 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Jan | 36.8 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 4 Jan | 37.3 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 5 Jan after | 36.6 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 6 Jan after | 36.9 °C | 20 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Jan after | 37.3 °C | 18 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 8 Jan after | 36.9 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 9 Jan after | 36.9 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 10 Jan after | 37.4 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Jan after | 37.6 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 12 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 13 Jan after | 38.3 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 14 Jan after | 38.5 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 215Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 16,673 haUror12 February 2020 · 3 days · 4 km away
- 14,981 haUror2 January 2022 · 4 days · 14 km away
- 17,474 haUror14 January 2026 · 7 days · 18 km away
- 14,820 haUror31 December 2021 · 5 days · 20 km away
- 16,330 haUror9 December 2016 · 9 days · 21 km away
- 14,719 haUror25 December 2017 · 9 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Uror fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 January 2019 and 4 January 2019: 4 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 10,918 hectares (109.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Uror (10,991 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.
Report an error
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.