Skip to content
worldfires
SS · South Sudan · →

Yei fire, 6 January 2017 Yei

Out · last detection 20 Jan 2017, 11:30 UTC

The fire started on 6 January 2017 in Yei, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,975 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 14th largest in Central Equatoria since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 48 in South Sudan in 2017, of 203.

Burnt area
10,975ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
6 Jan 2017 – 19 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
6 Jan
2017
Heat detections
477
in a single hotspot: 195 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
6.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Jan19 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

678910111314151617181920

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
44km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,254 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Yei where it started
    11,051 ha reached on 30 Dec
    1.6 %

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 35.8 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Jan 36.0 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Jan 35.8 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Jan 35.2 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Jan 35.1 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Jan 35.6 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Jan 35.8 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Jan 36.2 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Jan 36.3 °C 10 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Jan 37.3 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Jan 37.9 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Jan 37.8 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Jan 36.8 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Jan 37.1 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan after 37.8 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Jan after 36.9 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Jan after 38.1 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Jan after 38.0 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Jan after 35.4 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Jan after 35.1 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Jan after 34.8 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.7 mm High 38
27 Jan after 35.7 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Jan after 35.0 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Jan after 34.8 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Dec 2016
After · 26 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 · 477Every 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 2017 and 19 January 2017: 14 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 10,975 hectares (109.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yei (11,051 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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

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?

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

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.