Uror fire, 27 January 2021 Uror
The fire started on 27 January 2021 in Uror, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,523 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 201th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 94 in South Sudan in 2021, of 212.
- Burnt area
- 7,523ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 27 Jan 2021 – 30 Jan 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 27 Jan
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 239
- in a single hotspot: 115 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.8GW
- 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
67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,159 ha in 2016, 76 ha in 2017, 1,375 ha in 2018, 3,573 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,022 ha that had burned before.
- 2,298 ha Uror fire, February 2020 7,081 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,159 ha Uror fire, December 2016 16,330 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 793 ha Uror fire, February 2020 16,673 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 456 ha Uror fire, February 2020 6,243 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Uror where it started7,572 ha reached on 27 Jan0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Jan | 37.1 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 28 Jan | 38.3 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 29 Jan | 38.8 °C | 11 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 30 Jan | 36.2 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 31 Jan after | 38.3 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 1 Feb after | 38.2 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 2 Feb after | 38.8 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 3 Feb after | 39.9 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 Feb after | 40.0 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 5 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 11 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 6 Feb after | 35.7 °C | 9 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 7 Feb after | 35.3 °C | 9 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 8 Feb after | 36.6 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 9 Feb after | 37.5 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
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 · 239Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 16,330 haUror9 December 2016 · 9 days · 10 km away
- 16,673 haUror12 February 2020 · 3 days · 11 km away
- 14,820 haUror31 December 2021 · 5 days · 23 km away
- 17,474 haUror14 January 2026 · 7 days · 24 km away
- 14,719 haUror25 December 2017 · 9 days · 24 km away
- 29,488 haUror26 January 2021 · 8 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Uror fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 January 2021 and 30 January 2021: 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 7,523 hectares (75.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Uror (7,572 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.