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Al Dibab fire, 6 November 2017 Al Dibab

Out · last detection 11 Nov 2017, 11:01 UTC

The fire started on 6 November 2017 in Al Dibab, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,760 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 86th largest in West Kordofan since 2016 (of 175 with a page). Number 74 in Sudan in 2017, of 137.

Burnt area
2,760ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
6 Nov 2017 – 11 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
6 Nov
2017
Heat detections
73
in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
511MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Nov11 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

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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
35km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

37% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,015 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Al Dibab where it started
    2,773 ha reached on 6 Nov
    0.3 %

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 Nov 37.3 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Nov 38.1 °C 9 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Nov 38.4 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Nov 38.6 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Nov 39.2 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Nov 39.0 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Nov after 39.0 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Nov after 37.7 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Nov after 39.7 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Nov after 39.4 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Nov after 39.5 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Nov after 39.6 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Nov after 38.9 °C 16 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Nov after 40.3 °C 15 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Nov after 40.2 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Nov after 39.5 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Oct 2017
After · 18 Nov 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 · 73Every 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 Al Dibab fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 November 2017 and 11 November 2017: 6 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 2,760 hectares (27.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Al Dibab (2,773 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
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.