How long did the Yambio fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 December 2018 to 13 January 2019 (37 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 December 2018 to 7 January 2019.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 69,706 hectares (697.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yambio (68,252 ha, 7.7 %); Ibba (1,948 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.

SS · South Sudan · 2018-12-08 → 2019-01-13

Yambio fire, 8 December 2018 Yambio, Ibba

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2019, 12:15 UTC

The fire started on 8 December 2018 in Yambio, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 37 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 69,706 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 16th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 359 with a page). Number 3 in South Sudan in 2018, of 120.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ibba · 2016 Yambio · 2016 Yambio · 2017 Yambio · 2017

Burnt area: 69,706ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 37days; 8 Dec 2018 – 13 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit: 2; counties
Started on: 8 Dec; 2018
Heat detections: 3,114; in a single hotspot: 215 MW
Danger at start: 34; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 954MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Dec13 Jan

Play back 13 Jan 2019

How it evolved, day by day

8 Dec 14 Dec 20 Dec 25 Dec 30 Dec 4 Jan 9 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

40km/h · peak gust

14%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 53,852 ha in 2016, 38,872 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 60,086 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 44% of the area of London (697 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

Yambio where it started

68,252 ha reached on 8 Dec

7.7 %
Ibba

1,948 ha reached on 8 Dec

0.2 %

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)
8 Dec	35.2 °C	16 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
9 Dec	29.2 °C	44 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
10 Dec	34.0 °C	23 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
11 Dec	34.8 °C	17 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
12 Dec	33.9 °C	14 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
13 Dec	34.9 °C	17 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
14 Dec	34.4 °C	23 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
15 Dec	35.5 °C	29 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
16 Dec	33.9 °C	35 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
17 Dec	35.8 °C	25 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
18 Dec	35.1 °C	17 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
19 Dec	35.5 °C	17 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
20 Dec	35.2 °C	19 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
21 Dec	35.0 °C	19 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
22 Dec	34.9 °C	20 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
23 Dec	35.2 °C	18 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
24 Dec	34.8 °C	17 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
25 Dec	35.9 °C	19 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
26 Dec	36.4 °C	20 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
27 Dec	36.7 °C	18 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
28 Dec	35.1 °C	24 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
29 Dec	36.3 °C	20 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
30 Dec	35.8 °C	19 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
31 Dec	34.9 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
1 Jan	34.3 °C	23 %	40 km/h	0.4 mm	Very high 46
2 Jan	35.7 °C	24 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
3 Jan	37.1 °C	18 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
4 Jan	36.6 °C	14 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
5 Jan	35.9 °C	27 %	26 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 40
6 Jan	36.2 °C	25 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
7 Jan	36.2 °C	17 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
8 Jan	35.7 °C	14 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
9 Jan	36.0 °C	17 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
10 Jan	36.6 °C	16 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
11 Jan	37.6 °C	17 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
12 Jan	37.7 °C	16 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
13 Jan	37.9 °C	16 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
14 Jan after	36.6 °C	20 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
15 Jan after	35.7 °C	31 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
16 Jan after	37.0 °C	21 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
17 Jan after	36.4 °C	20 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
18 Jan after	37.2 °C	12 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
19 Jan after	37.7 °C	12 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
20 Jan after	37.4 °C	11 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
21 Jan after	38.2 °C	10 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
22 Jan after	38.2 °C	9 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
23 Jan after	38.0 °C	11 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 1 Dec 2018

After · 20 Jan 2019

Before After

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 · 3,114Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in South Sudan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Yambio fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 December 2018 to 13 January 2019 (37 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 December 2018 to 7 January 2019.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 69,706 hectares (697.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yambio (68,252 ha, 7.7 %); Ibba (1,948 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

26 October 2026 Last day with fire: 7 January 2019 → 13 January 2019.
26 October 2026 Start date: 13 December 2018 → 8 December 2018.

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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 13 December 2018 to 7 January 2019. 3,114 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.

Where it burned