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Wulu fire, 5 January 2017 Wulu, Ezo, Tonj South

Out · last detection 14 Jan 2017, 11:44 UTC

The fire started on 5 January 2017 in Wulu, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 26,512 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Lakes since 2016 (of 158 with a page). Number 10 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
26,512ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
5 Jan 2017 – 14 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
5 Jan
2017
Heat detections
856
in a single hotspot: 260 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
10.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Jan14 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

567891011121314

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
45km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

8% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,150 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Wulu where it started
    14,793 ha reached on 5 Jan
    1.2 %
  2. Ezo
    10,722 ha reached on 6 Jan
    1.3 %
  3. Tonj South
    1,191 ha reached on 10 Jan
    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)
5 Jan 36.3 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
6 Jan 37.6 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Jan 38.0 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Jan 38.3 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Jan 37.3 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Jan 37.5 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Jan 38.0 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
12 Jan 38.0 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
13 Jan 38.3 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Jan 39.5 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Jan after 40.1 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Jan after 39.9 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Jan after 39.5 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
18 Jan after 39.3 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Jan after 39.3 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
20 Jan after 40.0 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Jan after 40.0 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
22 Jan after 39.8 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
23 Jan after 39.8 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
24 Jan after 38.6 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Dec 2016
After · 21 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 · 856Every 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 Wulu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 January 2017 and 14 January 2017: 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 26,512 hectares (265.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Wulu (14,793 ha, 1.2 %); Ezo (10,722 ha, 1.3 %); Tonj South (1,191 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.