Ad Dinder fire, 16 November 2024 Ad Dinder
The fire started on 16 November 2024 in Ad Dinder, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,170 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 13th largest in Sennar since 2016 (of 137 with a page). Number 9 in Sudan in 2024, of 89.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 6,170ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 27days
- 16 Nov 2024 – 12 Dec 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- localities
- Started on
- 16 Nov
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 224
- in a single hotspot: 303 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 201MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,365 ha in 2016, 426 ha in 2017, 1,805 ha in 2019, 883 ha in 2020, 3,673 ha in 2021, 2,017 ha in 2022, 597 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,487 ha that had burned before.
- 3,673 ha Ad Dinder fire, November 2021 14,704 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 883 ha Ad Dinder fire, November 2022 2,552 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 781 ha Ad Dinder fire, November 2019 2,448 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 602 ha Ad Dinder fire, October 2016 3,130 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 460 ha Ad Dinder fire, November 2020 6,716 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 213 ha Ad Dinder fire, November 2020 5,282 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6 ha Ad Dinder fire, November 2019 2,205 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Ad Dinder where it started6,199 ha reached on 16 Nov0.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Nov | 39.5 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Nov | 40.1 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 18 Nov | 40.4 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Nov | 40.0 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 20 Nov | 39.5 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 21 Nov | 39.2 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 22 Nov | 37.9 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 23 Nov | 38.9 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 24 Nov | 37.8 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 25 Nov | 36.4 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 26 Nov | 37.9 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Nov | 37.2 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 28 Nov | 37.4 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 29 Nov | 36.1 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 30 Nov | 38.2 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 1 Dec | 38.0 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 2 Dec | 37.0 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 3 Dec | 38.8 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 4 Dec | 38.0 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 5 Dec | 39.2 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 6 Dec | 38.7 °C | 13 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 7 Dec | 40.9 °C | 9 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 8 Dec | 39.5 °C | 7 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 9 Dec | 41.0 °C | 8 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 10 Dec | 39.5 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 11 Dec | 40.7 °C | 14 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 12 Dec | 40.0 °C | 14 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 13 Dec after | 40.3 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 14 Dec after | 38.5 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 15 Dec after | 38.7 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 16 Dec after | 39.4 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 17 Dec after | 40.1 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 18 Dec after | 39.3 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 19 Dec after | 38.0 °C | 10 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 20 Dec after | 38.0 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 21 Dec after | 37.4 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 22 Dec after | 37.6 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
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 27 November 2024 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 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 · 224Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,704 haAd Dinder14 November 2021 · 14 days · 6 km away
- 21,563 haAd Dinder1 November 2025 · 46 days · 12 km away
- 14,369 haQuara16 November 2021 · 15 days · 25 km away
- 16,827 haQuara22 November 2016 · 12 days · 35 km away
- 35,770 haQuara19 December 2025 · 31 days · 40 km away
- 23,857 haQuara1 December 2019 · 22 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ad Dinder fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 November 2024 to 12 December 2024 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 November 2024 to 5 December 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,170 hectares (61.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ad Dinder (6,199 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of 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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 5 December 2024 → 12 December 2024.
- Start date: 21 November 2024 → 16 November 2024.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 November 2024 to 5 December 2024. 224 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.