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Uror fire, 7 December 2025 Uror, Nyirol

Out · last detection 19 Dec 2025, 11:05 UTC

The fire started on 7 December 2025 in Uror, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,310 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 380th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 269 in South Sudan in 2025, of 292.

Burnt area
5,310ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
7 Dec 2025 – 19 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
7 Dec
2025
Heat detections
141
in a single hotspot: 156 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
936MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Dec 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Dec19 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

7910111213141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
41km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,236 ha in 2016, 2,552 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,847 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Uror where it started
    4,978 ha reached on 7 Dec
    0.4 %
  2. Nyirol
    372 ha reached on 11 Dec
    0.0 %

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)
7 Dec 35.3 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Dec 35.9 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Dec 34.8 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Dec 34.7 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Dec 33.8 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Dec 34.0 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Dec 34.2 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Dec 33.3 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Dec 33.5 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Dec 32.2 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Dec 32.9 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Dec 31.8 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Dec 33.7 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Dec after 33.8 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Dec after 33.8 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Dec after 33.8 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Dec after 34.3 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Dec after 35.7 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Dec after 36.2 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Dec after 35.4 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Dec after 35.5 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Dec after 34.5 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Dec after 34.9 °C 15 % 33 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.

Before · 30 Nov 2025
After · 26 Dec 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 22 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 56 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak56 µg/m³
Days over the guideline15 days
PM1067 µg/m³
Optical depth0.58
5678910111213141516171819202122
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 · 141Every 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 7 December 2025 and 19 December 2025: 13 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 5,310 hectares (53.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Uror (4,978 ha, 0.4 %); Nyirol (372 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
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.