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Wau fire, 15 December 2019 Wau, Tambura, Raga

Out · last detection 22 Jan 2020, 22:58 UTC

The fire started on 15 December 2019 in Wau, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 112,800 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 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.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 4th largest in Western Bahr el Ghazal since 2016 (of 430 with a page). The largest in South Sudan in 2019, of 150.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Tambura · 2016Wau · 2016Nagero · 2018Tambura · 2017

Burnt area
112,800ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
38days
15 Dec 2019 – 21 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
15 Dec
2019
Heat detections
6,580
in a single hotspot: 254 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Average daily power
1.7GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Dec21 Jan
22 Jan 2020

How it evolved, day by day

15 Dec 2019 · 429 MW · 36 16 Dec 2019 · 1,310 MW · 96 17 Dec 2019 · 1,136 MW · 125 18 Dec 2019 · 1,024 MW · 136 19 Dec 2019 · 595 MW · 81 20 Dec 2019 · 922 MW · 72 21 Dec 2019 · 1,516 MW · 145 22 Dec 2019 · 2,939 MW · 239 23 Dec 2019 · 1,557 MW · 145 24 Dec 2019 · 2,001 MW · 138 25 Dec 2019 · 2,007 MW · 199 26 Dec 2019 · 4,086 MW · 488 27 Dec 2019 · 6,065 MW · 416 28 Dec 2019 · 4,251 MW · 453 29 Dec 2019 · 6,345 MW · 871 30 Dec 2019 · 5,113 MW · 527 31 Dec 2019 · 3,431 MW · 365 1 Jan 2020 · 5,104 MW · 383 2 Jan 2020 · 3,005 MW · 254 3 Jan 2020 · 1,530 MW · 178 4 Jan 2020 · 318 MW · 111 5 Jan 2020 · 2,378 MW · 155 6 Jan 2020 · 787 MW · 98 7 Jan 2020 · 978 MW · 108 8 Jan 2020 · 839 MW · 138 9 Jan 2020 · 2,167 MW · 294 10 Jan 2020 · 300 MW · 72 11 Jan 2020 · 214 MW · 52 12 Jan 2020 · 83 MW · 11 13 Jan 2020 · 219 MW · 21 14 Jan 2020 · 786 MW · 55 15 Jan 2020 · 77 MW · 21 16 Jan 2020 · 21 MW · 8 17 Jan 2020 · 201 MW · 7 18 Jan 2020 · 17 MW · 6 19 Jan 2020 · 14 MW · 5 20 Jan 2020 · 51 MW · 13 21 Jan 2020 · 51 MW · 19 22 Jan 2020 · 847 MW · 39
15 Dec 21 Dec 27 Dec 29 Dec 2 Jan 8 Jan 14 Jan 20 Jan

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
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 92,856 ha in 2016, 43,888 ha in 2017, 46,444 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 102,009 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 71% of the area of London (1,128 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Wau where it started
    70,739 ha reached on 15 Dec
    3.7 %
  2. Tambura
    42,552 ha reached on 15 Dec
    3.4 %
  3. Raga
    201 ha reached on 15 Dec
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
15 Dec 33.6 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Dec 33.9 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Dec 33.7 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Dec 33.4 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Dec 33.7 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Dec 33.8 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Dec 34.8 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Dec 35.0 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Dec 35.7 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Dec 35.3 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Dec 35.8 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Dec 34.5 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Dec 33.9 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Dec 33.2 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Dec 34.4 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Dec 35.6 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
31 Dec 35.3 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Jan 35.6 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Jan 36.6 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Jan 36.1 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Jan 33.7 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Jan 32.3 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Jan 33.7 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Jan 34.2 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Jan 35.1 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
9 Jan 33.7 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Jan 34.0 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Jan 32.9 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Jan 31.6 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Jan 33.1 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Jan 35.4 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Jan 37.1 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Jan 37.5 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Jan 37.7 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Jan 35.0 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Jan 33.3 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 Jan 32.9 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
21 Jan 32.9 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Jan after 32.1 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Jan after 31.1 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Jan after 31.1 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Jan after 31.8 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Jan after 32.6 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 Jan after 34.4 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
28 Jan after 36.1 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Jan after 35.2 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Jan after 35.0 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
31 Jan after 34.5 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Dec 2019
After · 28 Jan 2020

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 · 6,580Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 December 2019 to 21 January 2020 (38 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 December 2019 to 14 January 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 112,800 hectares (1,128.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Wau (70,739 ha, 3.7 %); Tambura (42,552 ha, 3.4 %); Raga (201 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 14 January 2020 → 21 January 2020.
  2. Start date: 16 December 2019 → 15 December 2019.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 7 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 16 December 2019 to 14 January 2020. 6,580 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.