Yambio fire, December 2025 Ibba, Yambio, Wulu
The fire started on 4 December 2025 in Yambio, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 32,173 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 31th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 359 with a page). Number 31 in South Sudan in 2025, of 292.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Ibba · 2024Ibba · 2021Yambio · 2022Ibba · 2019
- Burnt area
- 32,173ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 32days
- 4 Dec 2025 – 4 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- counties
- Started on
- 4 Dec
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 956
- in a single hotspot: 218 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 343MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 15,153 ha in 2016, 13,027 ha in 2017, 1,383 ha in 2018, 8,754 ha in 2019, 14,857 ha in 2020, 9,521 ha in 2021, 13,167 ha in 2022, 3,548 ha in 2023, 23,300 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 31,078 ha that had burned before.
- 6,093 ha Ibba fire, January 2024 14,287 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,061 ha Ibba fire, January 2021 21,834 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,049 ha Yambio fire, January 2022 13,861 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,016 ha Ibba fire, December 2019 15,012 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,618 ha Ibba fire, December 2016 5,623 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,463 ha Ibba fire, December 2024 5,411 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,681 ha Yambio fire, December 2017 6,035 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,677 ha Yambio fire, January 2024 6,710 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
28,147 ha reached on 7 Dec2.9 %
-
Yambio where it started3,488 ha reached on 4 Dec0.4 %
-
778 ha reached on 18 Dec0.1 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Dec | 35.4 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 5 Dec | 34.3 °C | 28 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Dec | 35.0 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 7 Dec | 34.5 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Dec | 35.4 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 9 Dec | 33.1 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Dec | 31.5 °C | 36 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Dec | 33.6 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Dec | 32.8 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Dec | 32.0 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Dec | 33.7 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 15 Dec | 30.7 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Dec | 31.8 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 17 Dec | 32.9 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 18 Dec | 32.2 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 19 Dec | 32.3 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 20 Dec | 33.2 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Dec | 33.7 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Dec | 31.7 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Dec | 33.8 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Dec | 34.4 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 25 Dec | 34.2 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 26 Dec | 33.9 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 27 Dec | 35.4 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Dec | 33.1 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Dec | 32.3 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 30 Dec | 32.6 °C | 21 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 31 Dec | 32.7 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 1 Jan | 34.4 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 2 Jan | 34.7 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Jan | 35.4 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 4 Jan | 35.5 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 5 Jan after | 35.3 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 6 Jan after | 34.9 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Jan after | 35.9 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 8 Jan after | 36.6 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 9 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 10 Jan after | 34.3 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Jan after | 34.3 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Jan after | 35.3 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 13 Jan after | 35.5 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 14 Jan after | 34.6 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 23 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 194 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 125: 8.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 956Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 135,559 haYambio2 December 2016 · 41 days · 9 km away
- 61,053 haWulu5 December 2016 · 27 days · 24 km away
- 72,650 haIbba18 December 2025 · 39 days · 32 km away
- 99,647 haIbba8 December 2025 · 52 days · 38 km away
- 69,706 haYambio8 December 2018 · 37 days · 39 km away
- 57,809 haIbba7 December 2018 · 38 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Yambio fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 December 2025 to 4 January 2026 (32 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 December 2025 to 28 December 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 32,173 hectares (321.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ibba (28,147 ha, 2.9 %); Yambio (3,488 ha, 0.4 %); Wulu (778 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 28 December 2025 → 4 January 2026.
- Start date: 10 December 2025 → 4 December 2025.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 10 December 2025 to 28 December 2025. 956 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 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.