Uror fire, 12 February 2020 Uror
The fire started on 12 February 2020 in Uror, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,673 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 43th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 18 in South Sudan in 2020, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 16,673ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 12 Feb 2020 – 14 Feb 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 12 Feb
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 413
- in a single hotspot: 99 MW
- Danger at start
- 57
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.2GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,141 ha in 2016, 2,062 ha in 2017, 4,805 ha in 2018, 2,402 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,882 ha that had burned before.
- 2,402 ha Uror fire, January 2019 10,918 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,317 ha Uror fire, December 2018 6,177 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 459 ha Uror fire, December 2016 16,330 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Uror where it started16,779 ha reached on 12 Feb1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Feb | 34.7 °C | 15 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 13 Feb | 35.9 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 14 Feb | 36.7 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 15 Feb after | 37.3 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 16 Feb after | 37.8 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 18 Feb after | 37.9 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 19 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 20 Feb after | 38.1 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 21 Feb after | 38.4 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 22 Feb after | 36.1 °C | 13 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 23 Feb after | 38.1 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 24 Feb after | 37.8 °C | 14 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
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 · 413Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 17,474 haUror14 January 2026 · 7 days · 16 km away
- 14,981 haUror2 January 2022 · 4 days · 17 km away
- 16,330 haUror9 December 2016 · 9 days · 18 km away
- 13,753 haUror28 January 2021 · 5 days · 20 km away
- 14,820 haUror31 December 2021 · 5 days · 23 km away
- 14,719 haUror25 December 2017 · 9 days · 24 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Uror fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 February 2020 and 14 February 2020: 3 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 16,673 hectares (166.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Uror (16,779 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.