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Yei fire, 4 January 2016 Yei

Out · last detection 14 Jan 2016, 11:07 UTC

The fire started on 4 January 2016 in Yei, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,171 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 18th largest in Central Equatoria since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 72 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
10,171ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
4 Jan 2016 – 13 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
4 Jan
2016
Heat detections
398
in a single hotspot: 212 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jan13 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

4567891011121314

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
42km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 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. Yei where it started
    10,238 ha reached on 1 Jan
    1.5 %

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)
4 Jan 33.4 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Jan 33.9 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Jan 32.9 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Jan 34.9 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 Jan 35.6 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Jan 33.9 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Jan 35.6 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Jan 35.5 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Jan 34.5 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Jan 33.2 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Jan after 34.0 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Jan after 32.7 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm High 29
16 Jan after 33.8 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Jan after 32.9 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Jan after 35.1 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jan after 34.4 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jan after 34.1 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Jan after 33.9 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jan after 33.2 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.4 mm High 36
23 Jan after 35.8 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Dec 2015
After · 20 Jan 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 · 398Every 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 Yei fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 January 2016 and 13 January 2016: 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 10,171 hectares (101.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yei (10,238 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.