Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Uror fire, 8 January 2026 Akobo, Uror

Out · last detection 20 Jan 2026, 11:06 UTC

The fire started on 8 January 2026 in Uror, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,649 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 156th largest in Jonglei since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 59 in South Sudan in 2026, of 182.

Burnt area
8,649ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
8 Jan 2026 – 20 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
8 Jan
2026
Heat detections
255
in a single hotspot: 244 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jan 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Jan20 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

891011121314151617181920

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
42km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,464 ha in 2016, 5 ha in 2017, 193 ha in 2018, 1,007 ha in 2020, 2,492 ha in 2021, 1,723 ha in 2022, 120 ha in 2023, 538 ha in 2024, 244 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,725 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Akobo
    8,555 ha reached on 3 Jan
    0.9 %
  2. Uror where it started
    154 ha reached on 1 Jan
    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)
8 Jan 37.0 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Jan 37.9 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Jan 36.2 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Jan 36.0 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Jan 36.0 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Jan 37.3 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Jan 36.0 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Jan 35.3 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Jan 34.0 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Jan 35.2 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Jan 36.6 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jan 36.8 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan 37.5 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Jan after 36.8 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jan after 37.5 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jan after 37.8 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Jan after 38.6 °C 16 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Jan after 40.1 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Jan after 39.3 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 Jan after 39.1 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
28 Jan after 36.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Jan after 37.6 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
30 Jan after 38.2 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Jan 2026
After · 27 Jan 2026

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 10 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 137 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 66: 4.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak137 µg/m³
Days over the guideline18 days
PM10145 µg/m³
Optical depth1.09
67891011121314151617181920212223
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 · 255Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Uror fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 January 2026 and 20 January 2026: 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 8,649 hectares (86.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Akobo (8,555 ha, 0.9 %); Uror (154 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.