Yei fire, 1 January 2026 Yei
The fire started on 1 January 2026 in Yei, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,433 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 17th largest in Central Equatoria since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 44 in South Sudan in 2026, of 182.
- Burnt area
- 10,433ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 1 Jan 2026 – 13 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 1 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 296
- in a single hotspot: 63 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.2GW
- 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 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,333 ha in 2016, 4,532 ha in 2017, 3,196 ha in 2018, 521 ha in 2019, 1,779 ha in 2020, 3,497 ha in 2021, 1,506 ha in 2022, 367 ha in 2023, 2,284 ha in 2024, 771 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,650 ha that had burned before.
- 2,946 ha Yei fire, December 2018 7,770 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 353 ha Yei fire, January 2017 5,929 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 39 ha Faradje fire, January 2019 80,671 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Yei where it started10,504 ha reached on 26 Dec1.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | 33.4 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 2 Jan | 32.0 °C | 39 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Jan | 34.8 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 Jan | 34.7 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Jan | 34.2 °C | 22 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Jan | 34.3 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 7 Jan | 35.6 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 8 Jan | 35.4 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Jan | 34.3 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 10 Jan | 33.3 °C | 22 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 11 Jan | 32.8 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 12 Jan | 33.9 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 13 Jan | 34.5 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Jan after | 33.9 °C | 23 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 15 Jan after | 33.6 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Jan after | 33.5 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Jan after | 34.1 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 18 Jan after | 35.2 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 19 Jan after | 35.4 °C | 21 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 20 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 21 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Jan after | 36.2 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Jan after | 35.0 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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 6 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 64 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.7 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 · 296Every 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 1 January 2026 and 13 January 2026: 13 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 10,433 hectares (104.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Yei (10,504 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.