Yei fire, January 2023 Yei, Maridi
The fire started on 15 January 2023 in Yei, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,077 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 13th largest in Central Equatoria since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 25 in South Sudan in 2023, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 11,077ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 15 Jan 2023 – 23 Jan 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 15 Jan
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 448
- in a single hotspot: 145 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.8GW
- sum of detected power
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 32 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: 2,061 ha in 2016, 5,767 ha in 2017, 7,038 ha in 2018, 5,687 ha in 2019, 6,458 ha in 2020, 3,079 ha in 2021, 2,783 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,770 ha that had burned before.
- 6,247 ha Yei fire, February 2020 10,798 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,524 ha Yei fire, January 2018 9,379 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,374 ha Yei fire, January 2019 8,046 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Yei where it started10,908 ha reached on 8 Jan1.6 %
-
248 ha reached on 10 Jan0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Jan | 33.8 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Jan | 33.6 °C | 19 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Jan | 34.9 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Jan | 34.4 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 19 Jan | 34.3 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 20 Jan | 34.6 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Jan | 36.1 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Jan | 33.5 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Jan | 34.5 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Jan after | 32.7 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 25 Jan after | 34.1 °C | 23 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 26 Jan after | 32.8 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Jan after | 35.2 °C | 21 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Jan after | 35.8 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 29 Jan after | 33.5 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Jan after | 33.8 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 31 Jan after | 34.6 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Feb after | 32.5 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 28 |
| 2 Feb after | 33.3 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
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.
Detections table · 448Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Yei fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 January 2023 and 23 January 2023: 9 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 11,077 hectares (110.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yei (10,908 ha, 1.6 %); Maridi (248 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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
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
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.