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As Sunta fire, March 2025 As Sunta

Out · last detection 15 Mar 2025, 11:32 UTC

The fire started on 13 March 2025 in As Sunta, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,933 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 137th largest in South Darfur since 2016 (of 322 with a page). Number 188 in Sudan in 2025, of 390.

Burnt area
2,933ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
13 Mar 2025 – 14 Mar 2025
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
13 Mar
2025
Heat detections
92
in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start
67
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
940MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Mar 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Mar14 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

131415

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
43km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,384 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. As Sunta where it started
    2,950 ha reached on 12 Mar
    0.8 %

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)
13 Mar 38.8 °C 6 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
14 Mar 39.5 °C 6 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
15 Mar after 40.1 °C 4 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
16 Mar after 40.2 °C 6 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
17 Mar after 40.2 °C 5 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
18 Mar after 41.2 °C 6 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
19 Mar after 40.1 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
20 Mar after 39.8 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
21 Mar after 38.7 °C 8 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
22 Mar after 35.7 °C 8 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
23 Mar after 35.2 °C 7 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
24 Mar after 35.9 °C 5 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Mar 2025
After · 21 Mar 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 17 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 26 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak26 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM10137 µg/m³
Optical depth0.32
11121314151617
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 · 92Every 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 As Sunta fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 March 2025 and 14 March 2025: 2 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 2,933 hectares (29.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered As Sunta (2,950 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, 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

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.