Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Wau fire, 23 November 2016 Wau

Out · last detection 30 Nov 2016, 23:24 UTC

The fire started on 23 November 2016 in Wau, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,304 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 241th largest in Western Bahr el Ghazal since 2016 (of 424 with a page). Number 122 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
7,304ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
23 Nov 2016 – 30 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
23 Nov
2016
Heat detections
203
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
899MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Nov30 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627282930

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
35km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days 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
    7,360 ha reached on 23 Nov
    0.4 %

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)
23 Nov 35.6 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
24 Nov 35.7 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Nov 36.1 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Nov 36.2 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Nov 37.1 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Nov 37.0 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Nov 37.5 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Nov 37.9 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Dec after 36.1 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
2 Dec after 35.9 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Dec after 36.8 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Dec after 36.2 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Dec after 36.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Dec after 37.6 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Dec after 36.9 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Dec after 37.5 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Dec after 36.5 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Dec after 37.1 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Nov 2016
After · 7 Dec 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 · 203Every 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 23 November 2016 and 30 November 2016: 8 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 7,304 hectares (73.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Wau (7,360 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.

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.