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Wau fire, 27 November 2016 Wau, Nagero, Raga

Out · last detection 9 Jan 2017, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 27 November 2016 in Wau, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 43 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 742,600 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the largest fire in Western Bahr el Ghazal since 2016 (of 424 with a page). The largest in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
742,600ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
43days
27 Nov 2016 – 8 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
4
counties
Started on
27 Nov
2016
Heat detections
40,055
in a single hotspot: 367 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
388.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Nov8 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2728293012345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123456789

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
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,019 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,806 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Wau where it started
    516,337 ha reached on 24 Nov
    27 %
  2. Nagero
    167,514 ha reached on 26 Nov
    18 %
  3. Raga
    52,349 ha reached on 25 Nov
    0.8 %
  4. Tambura
    10,798 ha reached on 26 Nov
    0.9 %

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)
27 Nov 36.2 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Nov 36.0 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Nov 36.5 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Nov 37.2 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Dec 34.4 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
2 Dec 35.2 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Dec 35.9 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Dec 35.4 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Dec 36.7 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Dec 37.3 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Dec 36.4 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Dec 37.1 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Dec 36.4 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Dec 36.9 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Dec 36.6 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Dec 36.8 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Dec 36.6 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 Dec 35.7 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Dec 34.3 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Dec 35.0 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Dec 35.3 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Dec 35.2 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Dec 35.4 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Dec 35.8 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Dec 36.7 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Dec 36.6 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Dec 37.6 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Dec 36.7 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Dec 36.8 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Dec 35.5 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Dec 35.2 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Dec 35.0 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Dec 36.3 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Dec 36.7 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
31 Dec 36.9 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Jan 37.2 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Jan 36.8 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Jan 35.9 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Jan 36.5 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Jan 35.7 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Jan 37.5 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Jan 37.9 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Jan 38.1 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Jan after 36.6 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
10 Jan after 37.5 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
11 Jan after 38.0 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
12 Jan after 37.9 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
13 Jan after 38.0 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
14 Jan after 38.7 °C 8 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Jan after 39.3 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
16 Jan after 39.3 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
17 Jan after 39.3 °C 9 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
18 Jan after 39.3 °C 9 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Nov 2016
After · 15 Jan 2017

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 · 40,055Every 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 27 November 2016 and 8 January 2017: 43 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 742,600 hectares (7,426.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Wau (516,337 ha, 27 %); Nagero (167,514 ha, 18 %); Raga (52,349 ha, 0.8 %); Tambura (10,798 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.