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Uror fire, 19 January 2022 Uror, Akobo

Out · last detection 25 Jan 2022, 23:36 UTC

The fire started on 19 January 2022 in Uror, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,692 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 95th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 37 in South Sudan in 2022, of 124.

Burnt area
11,692ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
19 Jan 2022 – 24 Jan 2022
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
19 Jan
2022
Heat detections
397
in a single hotspot: 148 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jan 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jan24 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

1920212425

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
45km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

46% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 899 ha in 2016, 845 ha in 2017, 3,673 ha in 2018, 192 ha in 2019, 679 ha in 2020, 281 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,385 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Uror where it started
    6,320 ha reached on 19 Jan
    0.5 %
  2. Akobo
    5,451 ha reached on 19 Jan
    0.6 %

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)
19 Jan 34.9 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Jan 34.0 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
21 Jan 35.8 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Jan 36.1 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Jan 36.4 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Jan 37.4 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Jan after 38.3 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
26 Jan after 38.1 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
27 Jan after 36.2 °C 18 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
28 Jan after 35.3 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
29 Jan after 35.5 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Jan after 35.8 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
31 Jan after 36.9 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
1 Feb after 36.3 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Feb after 37.4 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
3 Feb after 38.5 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jan 2022
After · 31 Jan 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 · 397Every 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 Uror fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 January 2022 and 24 January 2022: 6 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 11,692 hectares (116.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Uror (6,320 ha, 0.5 %); Akobo (5,451 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.

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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.