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Al Dibab fire, 1 December 2025 Al Dibab

Out · last detection 14 Dec 2025, 23:34 UTC

The fire started on 1 December 2025 in Al Dibab, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,573 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 20th largest in West Kordofan since 2016 (of 175 with a page). Number 85 in Sudan in 2025, of 390.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
4,573ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
1 Dec 2025 – 14 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
1 Dec
2025
Heat detections
127
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
527MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Dec 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Dec14 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1234567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
38km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 334 ha in 2021, 1,231 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,332 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Al Dibab where it started
    4,604 ha reached on 25 Nov
    0.5 %

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 Dec 37.2 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Dec 37.0 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Dec 36.7 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Dec 37.4 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
5 Dec 37.2 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Dec 36.9 °C 16 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Dec 36.5 °C 18 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Dec 37.9 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Dec 35.4 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Dec 34.6 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Dec 34.8 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
12 Dec 35.4 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Dec 35.0 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Dec 34.8 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Dec after 32.6 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 Dec after 31.3 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
17 Dec after 32.3 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Dec after 32.6 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Dec after 33.6 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Dec after 33.5 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Dec after 34.1 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Dec after 35.0 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Dec after 35.7 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Dec after 36.3 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Nov 2025
After · 21 Dec 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 9 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 57 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak57 µg/m³
Days over the guideline17 days
PM10191 µg/m³
Optical depth0.58
29301234567891011121314151617
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 127Every 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 1 December 2025 and 14 December 2025: 14 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 4,573 hectares (45.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Al Dibab (4,604 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 38 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.