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Adila fire, 23 November 2016 Adila, Abu Karinka, Abu Jabrah

Out · last detection 30 Nov 2016, 23:23 UTC

The fire started on 23 November 2016 in Adila, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,116 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in East Darfur since 2016 (of 153 with a page). Number 9 in Sudan in 2016, of 169.

Burnt area
10,116ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
23 Nov 2016 – 29 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
3
localities
Started on
23 Nov
2016
Heat detections
315
in a single hotspot: 78 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Nov29 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627282930

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

39°high
40km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 47 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. Adila where it started
    7,087 ha reached on 23 Nov
    1.8 %
  2. Abu Karinka
    1,863 ha reached on 24 Nov
    0.8 %
  3. Abu Jabrah
    1,226 ha reached on 23 Nov
    0.2 %

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)
23 Nov 38.9 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Nov 37.1 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Nov 35.4 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Nov 35.3 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Nov 36.0 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Nov 36.1 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Nov 36.4 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Nov after 36.5 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
1 Dec after 37.0 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Dec after 35.5 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
3 Dec after 34.3 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
4 Dec after 35.2 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Dec after 36.6 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
6 Dec after 36.5 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
7 Dec after 35.1 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
8 Dec after 34.4 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
9 Dec after 33.2 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Dec after 33.4 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Nov 2016
After · 6 Dec 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 · 315Every 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 Sudan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Adila fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 November 2016 and 29 November 2016: 7 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 10,116 hectares (101.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Adila (7,087 ha, 1.8 %); Abu Karinka (1,863 ha, 0.8 %); Abu Jabrah (1,226 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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

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.