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Baw fire, 10 December 2016 Al Kurmuk, Baw

Out · last detection 13 Dec 2016, 11:45 UTC

The fire started on 10 December 2016 in Baw, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,760 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 43th largest in Blue Nile since 2016 (of 96 with a page). Number 86 in Sudan in 2016, of 169.

Burnt area
2,760ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
10 Dec 2016 – 13 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
2
localities
Started on
10 Dec
2016
Heat detections
74
in a single hotspot: 35 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
351MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Dec13 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

10111213

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
41km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Al Kurmuk
    1,449 ha reached on 10 Dec
    0.2 %
  2. Baw where it started
    1,330 ha reached on 10 Dec
    0.2 %

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)
10 Dec 36.7 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Dec 37.5 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
12 Dec 37.6 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Dec 37.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Dec after 36.6 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Dec after 36.4 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Dec after 35.5 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Dec after 35.8 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Dec after 36.7 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Dec after 35.8 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Dec after 36.9 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Dec after 36.6 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Dec after 37.5 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Dec after 38.9 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Dec 2016
After · 20 Dec 2016

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 · 74Every 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 Baw fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 December 2016 and 13 December 2016: 4 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 entered 2 municipalities: Al Kurmuk (1,449 ha, 0.2 %); Baw (1,330 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 41 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.