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Yei fire, 6 January 2016 Yei

Out · last detection 18 Jan 2016, 11:32 UTC

The fire started on 6 January 2016 in Yei, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,522 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 7th largest in Central Equatoria since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 44 in South Sudan in 2016, of 244.

Burnt area
14,522ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
6 Jan 2016 – 17 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
6 Jan
2016
Heat detections
498
in a single hotspot: 260 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
6.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Jan17 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112131415161718

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
40km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 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
    14,624 ha reached on 1 Jan
    2.2 %

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)
6 Jan 33.2 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Jan 35.3 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 Jan 35.7 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Jan 34.3 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Jan 35.6 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Jan 35.7 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Jan 34.2 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Jan 33.3 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Jan 34.3 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Jan 33.1 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
16 Jan 34.0 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
17 Jan 33.6 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Jan after 35.2 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jan after 34.4 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jan after 34.2 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Jan after 33.9 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Jan after 33.3 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Jan after 36.5 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Jan after 34.6 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Jan after 33.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jan after 32.8 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jan after 31.0 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Dec 2015
After · 24 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 · 498Every 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 6 January 2016 and 17 January 2016: 12 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 14,522 hectares (145.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yei (14,624 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.