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SD · Sudan · –

Al Leri fire, 25 November 2017 Al Leri

Out · last measured on 2 Dec 2017

The fire started on 25 November 2017 in Al Leri, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,330 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 235th largest in South Kordofan since 2016 (of 314 with a page). Number 98 in Sudan in 2017, of 137.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
2,330ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
25 Nov 2017 – 2 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
25 Nov
2017
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

38°high
44km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 570 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.5% of the area of London (23 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Al Leri where it started
    1,863 ha
    0.2 %

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 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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.

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)
25 Nov 36.7 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Nov 36.7 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Nov 36.9 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 Nov 36.0 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
29 Nov 37.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Nov 38.2 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Dec 37.0 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Dec 37.2 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Dec after 37.8 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Dec after 38.7 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Dec after 39.0 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Dec after 39.2 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Dec after 38.1 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
8 Dec after 37.5 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
9 Dec after 38.2 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Dec after 38.7 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
11 Dec after 39.6 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Dec after 39.3 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 56.3, a minimum humidity of 16% and 21 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.

FWI at the start 56.3
Minimum humidity 16 %
Days without rain 21
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Abu Jubayhah fire, November 2020
2,138 ha 1 day FWI 56.2 Min. humidity 15 % 76 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

6 days
median duration
3,895 ha
median area
11 %
went past 10,000 ha
—
rain at the end (median; 0 of 19 had it)

It stayed below its twins: 2,330 ha against a median of 3,895 ha. It lasted 8 days, against 6 days.

In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
44km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 2 Dec, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. None of its 19 twins had rain when they ended.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Nov 2017
After · 9 Dec 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.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Sudan

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Al Leri fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 November 2017 and 2 December 2017: 8 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 2,330 hectares (23.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Al Leri (1,863 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 44 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 19. Their median duration was 6 days and their median area 3,895 ha; 11 % went past 10,000 ha. In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.

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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.