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Wau fire, February 2016 Wau, Nagero

Out · last detection 14 Feb 2016, 11:26 UTC

The fire started on 4 February 2016 in Wau, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,484 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 234th largest in Western Bahr el Ghazal since 2016 (of 424 with a page). Number 117 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
7,484ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
4 Feb 2016 – 13 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
4 Feb
2016
Heat detections
249
in a single hotspot: 61 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Feb13 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

4567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
42km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Wau where it started
    5,471 ha reached on 4 Feb
    0.3 %
  2. Nagero
    2,056 ha reached on 9 Feb
    0.2 %

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)
4 Feb 38.0 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Feb 39.6 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
6 Feb 39.0 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
7 Feb 37.4 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
8 Feb 37.3 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
9 Feb 37.2 °C 6 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Feb 37.2 °C 5 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
11 Feb 35.6 °C 6 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
12 Feb 36.3 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
13 Feb 37.9 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Feb after 39.0 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
15 Feb after 40.0 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
16 Feb after 40.5 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
17 Feb after 40.8 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
18 Feb after 40.4 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Feb after 41.2 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Feb after 41.5 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Feb after 41.3 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Feb after 39.2 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
23 Feb after 37.5 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Jan 2016
After · 20 Feb 2016

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 · 249Every 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 Wau fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 February 2016 and 13 February 2016: 10 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 7,484 hectares (74.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Wau (5,471 ha, 0.3 %); Nagero (2,056 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.