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Yambio fire, 6 December 2016 Yambio, Nzara, Wulu

Out · last detection 6 Jan 2017, 23:31 UTC

The fire started on 6 December 2016 in Yambio, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 135,559 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.

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

It is the 5th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 5 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ibba · 2025Yambio · 2018Ibba · 2025Wulu · 2016

Burnt area
135,559ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
31days
6 Dec 2016 – 5 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
4
counties
Started on
6 Dec
2016
Heat detections
5,669
in a single hotspot: 291 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
2.2GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Dec5 Jan
6 Jan 2017

How it evolved, day by day

6 Dec 2016 · 343 MW · 14 7 Dec 2016 · 841 MW · 44 8 Dec 2016 · 3,247 MW · 123 9 Dec 2016 · 2,865 MW · 176 10 Dec 2016 · 1,748 MW · 174 11 Dec 2016 · 3,037 MW · 133 12 Dec 2016 · 1,511 MW · 193 13 Dec 2016 · 1,568 MW · 133 14 Dec 2016 · 3,370 MW · 320 15 Dec 2016 · 1,347 MW · 254 16 Dec 2016 · 9,033 MW · 348 17 Dec 2016 · 4,389 MW · 456 18 Dec 2016 · 9,417 MW · 565 19 Dec 2016 · 5,713 MW · 482 20 Dec 2016 · 8,004 MW · 482 21 Dec 2016 · 1,919 MW · 272 22 Dec 2016 · 2,531 MW · 137 23 Dec 2016 · 457 MW · 74 24 Dec 2016 · 217 MW · 24 25 Dec 2016 · 92 MW · 28 26 Dec 2016 · 604 MW · 69 27 Dec 2016 · 173 MW · 37 28 Dec 2016 · 457 MW · 92 29 Dec 2016 · 576 MW · 69 30 Dec 2016 · 609 MW · 100 31 Dec 2016 · 989 MW · 163 1 Jan 2017 · 3,196 MW · 272 2 Jan 2017 · 797 MW · 84 3 Jan 2017 · 375 MW · 48 4 Jan 2017 · 304 MW · 41 5 Jan 2017 · 125 MW · 31 6 Jan 2017 · 113 MW · 21
6 Dec 11 Dec 16 Dec 18 Dec 21 Dec 26 Dec 31 Dec 5 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

37°high
45km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 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.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 86% of the area of London (1,356 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. Yambio where it started
    98,258 ha reached on 2 Dec
    11 %
  2. Nzara
    23,633 ha reached on 3 Dec
    3.6 %
  3. Wulu
    12,125 ha reached on 3 Dec
    1.0 %
  4. Ibba
    2,550 ha reached on 3 Dec
    0.3 %

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 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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)
6 Dec 36.4 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Dec 33.2 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
8 Dec 35.1 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Dec 34.9 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
10 Dec 35.2 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
11 Dec 33.9 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
12 Dec 33.7 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
13 Dec 33.0 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
14 Dec 33.0 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Dec 31.7 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
16 Dec 34.1 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
17 Dec 34.8 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Dec 34.7 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Dec 35.5 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Dec 35.3 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Dec 35.4 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Dec 35.4 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Dec 36.3 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Dec 36.6 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Dec 36.6 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Dec 35.5 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Dec 35.3 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Dec 35.3 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Dec 36.5 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Dec 36.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Dec 36.9 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Jan 37.1 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Jan 36.2 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Jan 36.3 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Jan 36.3 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Jan 35.8 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Jan after 36.8 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Jan after 37.4 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Jan after 37.9 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Jan after 36.7 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Jan after 36.7 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Jan after 37.4 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
12 Jan after 36.9 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Jan after 37.9 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Jan after 38.5 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Jan after 39.6 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Nov 2016
After · 12 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 · 5,669Every 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 6 December 2016 and 5 January 2017: 31 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 135,559 hectares (1,355.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Yambio (98,258 ha, 11 %); Nzara (23,633 ha, 3.6 %); Wulu (12,125 ha, 1.0 %); Ibba (2,550 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

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; 6 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 5,669 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 2015, 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.