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Wau fire, 25 November 2017 Wau, Jur River, Aweil Centre

Out · last detection 11 Dec 2017, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 25 November 2017 in Wau, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,321 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 85th largest in Western Bahr el Ghazal since 2016 (of 424 with a page). Number 30 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
15,321ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
25 Nov 2017 – 10 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
25 Nov
2017
Heat detections
469
in a single hotspot: 133 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Nov10 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

25262728291234567891011

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
41km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,190 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Wau where it started
    15,268 ha reached on 25 Nov
    0.8 %
  2. Jur River
    103 ha reached on 4 Dec
    0.0 %
  3. Aweil Centre
    72 ha reached on 8 Dec
    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)
25 Nov 34.4 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Nov 35.2 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Nov 34.8 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Nov 35.4 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Nov 35.6 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Nov 36.2 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Dec 35.5 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Dec 35.0 °C 16 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Dec 36.2 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Dec 37.0 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Dec 37.7 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Dec 37.5 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Dec 36.9 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Dec 35.7 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Dec 36.2 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Dec 37.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Dec after 38.2 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Dec after 38.1 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Dec after 37.6 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Dec after 37.4 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Dec after 36.4 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Dec after 36.4 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Dec after 36.4 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Dec after 37.2 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Dec after 37.9 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Dec after 38.2 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Nov 2017
After · 17 Dec 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 · 469Every 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 25 November 2017 and 10 December 2017: 16 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 15,321 hectares (153.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Wau (15,268 ha, 0.8 %); Jur River (103 ha, 0.0 %); Aweil Centre (72 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.

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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.