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SD · Sudan · –

Al Radoum fire, 2 January 2026 Al Radoum, Um Dafoug

Out · last detection 9 Feb 2026, 11:32 UTC

The fire started on 2 January 2026 in Al Radoum, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 48,517 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

The largest in Sudan in 2026, of 358.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in August 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.

Burnt area
48,517ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
39days
2 Jan 2026 – 9 Feb 2026
Municipalities hit
2
localities
Started on
2 Jan
2026
Heat detections
1,159
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
77
Very extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
153MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Jan9 Feb
9 Feb 2026

How it evolved, day by day

2 Jan 2026 · 52 MW · 7 3 Jan 2026 · 16 MW · 3 4 Jan 2026 · 339 MW · 89 5 Jan 2026 · 745 MW · 87 6 Jan 2026 · 263 MW · 33 7 Jan 2026 · 115 MW · 23 8 Jan 2026 · 67 MW · 10 9 Jan 2026 · 7 MW · 7 10 Jan 2026 · 6 MW · 4 11 Jan 2026 · 239 MW · 21 12 Jan 2026 · 113 MW · 23 13 Jan 2026 · 284 MW · 43 14 Jan 2026 · 318 MW · 111 15 Jan 2026 · 124 MW · 35 16 Jan 2026 · 61 MW · 32 17 Jan 2026 · 50 MW · 14 18 Jan 2026 · 158 MW · 52 19 Jan 2026 · 144 MW · 51 20 Jan 2026 · 45 MW · 49 21 Jan 2026 · 260 MW · 27 22 Jan 2026 · 273 MW · 45 23 Jan 2026 · 653 MW · 47 24 Jan 2026 · 84 MW · 15 25 Jan 2026 · 292 MW · 107 26 Jan 2026 · 32 MW · 12 27 Jan 2026 · 33 MW · 8 28 Jan 2026 · 43 MW · 13 29 Jan 2026 · 55 MW · 10 30 Jan 2026 · 100 MW · 27 31 Jan 2026 · 19 MW · 8 1 Feb 2026 · 238 MW · 18 2 Feb 2026 · 9 MW · 1 4 Feb 2026 · 339 MW · 48 5 Feb 2026 · 119 MW · 58 6 Feb 2026 · 4 MW · 5 7 Feb 2026 · 77 MW · 7 8 Feb 2026 · 11 MW · 7 9 Feb 2026 · 14 MW · 2
5 Jan 18 Jan 26 Jan 4 Feb

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

Fire front film How it spread from one satellite pass to the next (66 passes) and with what wind. Watch the film

The weather it burned in

39°high
48km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

39% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,191 ha in 2016, 1,946 ha in 2017, 880 ha in 2019, 2,722 ha in 2020, 4,786 ha in 2021, 2,908 ha in 2022, 4,340 ha in 2023, 4,040 ha in 2024, 5,353 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 19,149 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 31% of the area of London (485 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 Radoum where it started
    39,816 ha reached on 2 Jan
    1.6 %
  2. 9,410 ha reached on 4 Jan
    1.8 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents≈ 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.02 hectares of built-up land and about 20 residents (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)

Started with Very dry air: 55 % of the area in Sudan 60 days without rain: 27 % of the area in Sudan

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
2 Jan 35.5 °C 6 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
3 Jan 35.0 °C 7 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 93
4 Jan 35.0 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 90
5 Jan 34.7 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 90
6 Jan 34.1 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 88
7 Jan 34.5 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
8 Jan 35.8 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
9 Jan 35.6 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
10 Jan 33.6 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
11 Jan 33.9 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
12 Jan 34.4 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
13 Jan 33.5 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
14 Jan 31.8 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
15 Jan 31.1 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 85
16 Jan 31.0 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 80
17 Jan 32.9 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
18 Jan 34.2 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
19 Jan 34.6 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
20 Jan 34.8 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
21 Jan 36.3 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
22 Jan 38.4 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
23 Jan 38.5 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
24 Jan 39.2 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
25 Jan 38.2 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
26 Jan 37.9 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
27 Jan 37.6 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 89
28 Jan 35.8 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 90
29 Jan 34.7 °C 6 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 87
30 Jan 35.7 °C 7 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
31 Jan 36.6 °C 7 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
1 Feb 37.0 °C 7 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
2 Feb 37.7 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
3 Feb 37.1 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 93
4 Feb 36.2 °C 7 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 99
5 Feb 37.1 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 85
6 Feb 35.9 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
7 Feb 36.9 °C 6 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
8 Feb 36.4 °C 4 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 93
9 Feb 37.0 °C 6 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
10 Feb after 37.8 °C 6 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
11 Feb after 38.4 °C 7 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
12 Feb after 38.5 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
13 Feb after 38.0 °C 6 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
14 Feb after 37.3 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 90
15 Feb after 37.8 °C 4 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 90
16 Feb after 39.0 °C 5 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 80
17 Feb after 40.5 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 85
18 Feb after 37.6 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 86
19 Feb after 34.7 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 86

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Dec 2025
After · 16 Feb 2026

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 11 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 72 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 52: 3.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak72 µg/m³
Days over the guideline32 days
PM10231 µg/m³
Optical depth0.44
1 Jan10 Jan19 Jan28 Jan6 Feb
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 · 1,159Every 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 Radoum fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 January 2026 to 9 February 2026 (39 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 January 2026 to 9 February 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 48,517 hectares (485.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Al Radoum (39,816 ha, 1.6 %); Um Dafoug (9,410 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 99, class Very 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 3 January 2026 → 2 January 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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; 7 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 3 January 2026 to 9 February 2026. 1,159 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.

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.