Uror fire, 14 January 2026 Uror
The fire started on 14 January 2026 in Uror, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,474 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 35th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 17 in South Sudan in 2026, of 183.
- Burnt area
- 17,474ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 14 Jan 2026 – 20 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 14 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 395
- in a single hotspot: 493 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 21.6GW
- 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
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,153 ha in 2016, 1,165 ha in 2017, 7,203 ha in 2018, 209 ha in 2019, 6,286 ha in 2020, 8,108 ha in 2021, 1,323 ha in 2022, 2,366 ha in 2023, 9,118 ha in 2024, 2,053 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,969 ha that had burned before.
- 3,569 ha Uror fire, January 2024 9,120 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,125 ha Uror fire, December 2018 6,177 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,423 ha Uror fire, February 2020 16,673 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,036 ha Uror fire, February 2020 6,243 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,280 ha Uror fire, December 2021 7,866 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 852 ha Uror fire, February 2021 5,285 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 636 ha Uror fire, January 2020 6,628 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 209 ha Uror fire, January 2019 10,918 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Uror where it started17,581 ha reached on 14 Jan1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jan | 35.1 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Jan | 34.9 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 16 Jan | 34.1 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 17 Jan | 35.4 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Jan | 36.6 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 19 Jan | 37.1 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 20 Jan | 37.1 °C | 21 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Jan after | 36.6 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Jan after | 38.4 °C | 20 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 23 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 24 Jan after | 38.6 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Jan after | 39.3 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 26 Jan after | 39.4 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 27 Jan after | 39.0 °C | 14 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 28 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 29 Jan after | 37.4 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 30 Jan after | 37.9 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 21 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 150 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 72: 4.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 395Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 16,673 haUror12 February 2020 · 3 days · 16 km away
- 13,753 haUror28 January 2021 · 5 days · 18 km away
- 14,719 haUror25 December 2017 · 9 days · 19 km away
- 14,981 haUror2 January 2022 · 4 days · 25 km away
- 16,330 haUror9 December 2016 · 9 days · 27 km away
- 29,488 haUror26 January 2021 · 8 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Uror fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 January 2026 and 20 January 2026: 7 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 17,474 hectares (174.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Uror (17,581 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.