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Yambio fire, 5 December 2016 Yambio, Nzara

Out · last detection 12 Dec 2016, 23:00 UTC

The fire started on 5 December 2016 in Yambio, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,256 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 108th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 55 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
12,256ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
5 Dec 2016 – 11 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
5 Dec
2016
Heat detections
489
in a single hotspot: 155 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Energy released
6.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Dec11 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

56789101112

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
34km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 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. Yambio where it started
    9,470 ha reached on 2 Dec
    1.1 %
  2. Nzara
    2,875 ha reached on 2 Dec
    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)
5 Dec 35.4 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Dec 36.3 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Dec 32.7 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
8 Dec 34.8 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Dec 35.3 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Dec 35.6 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Dec 34.0 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Dec after 33.7 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Dec after 33.2 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Dec after 34.2 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Dec after 30.5 °C 49 % 23 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 20
16 Dec after 34.1 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
17 Dec after 35.1 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Dec after 34.8 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Dec after 35.6 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Dec after 35.4 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Dec after 35.6 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Nov 2016
After · 18 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 · 489Every 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 Yambio fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 December 2016 and 11 December 2016: 7 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 12,256 hectares (122.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yambio (9,470 ha, 1.1 %); Nzara (2,875 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class 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.