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Uror fire, 10 December 2024 Uror, Pibor, Bor South

Out · last detection 27 Dec 2024, 10:54 UTC

The fire started on 10 December 2024 in Uror, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,446 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 361th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 147 in South Sudan in 2024, of 180.

Burnt area
5,446ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
10 Dec 2024 – 26 Dec 2024
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
10 Dec
2024
Heat detections
173
in a single hotspot: 208 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Dec 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Dec26 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1012131415161718192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
40km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 605 ha in 2020, 4,109 ha in 2021, 34 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,593 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Uror where it started
    2,912 ha reached on 8 Dec
    0.2 %
  2. Pibor
    1,306 ha reached on 9 Dec
    0.0 %
  3. Bor South
    1,263 ha reached on 9 Dec
    0.1 %

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)
10 Dec 36.8 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Dec 37.5 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Dec 36.0 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Dec 36.6 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Dec 37.3 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Dec 37.6 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Dec 36.5 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Dec 36.8 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Dec 36.2 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Dec 37.8 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Dec 37.9 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Dec 37.3 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Dec 35.0 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Dec 35.8 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Dec 36.8 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Dec 35.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Dec 35.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Dec after 34.7 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Dec after 33.5 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Dec after 36.7 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Dec after 36.8 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Dec after 37.1 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Jan after 36.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Jan after 36.4 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Jan after 36.8 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Jan after 36.5 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Jan after 36.9 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Dec 2024
After · 2 Jan 2025

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 23 December 2024 the air beside the fire reached 133 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 63: 4.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak133 µg/m³
Days over the guideline22 days
PM10140 µg/m³
Optical depth1.33
891011121314151617181920212223242526272829
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 173Every 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 10 December 2024 and 26 December 2024: 17 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 5,446 hectares (54.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Uror (2,912 ha, 0.2 %); Pibor (1,306 ha, 0.0 %); Bor South (1,263 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.