Baw fire, 4 November 2017 Baw
The fire started on 4 November 2017 in Baw, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,935 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 7th largest in Blue Nile since 2016 (of 96 with a page). Number 7 in Sudan in 2017, of 137.
- Burnt area
- 7,935ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 4 Nov 2017 – 10 Nov 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- localities
- Started on
- 4 Nov
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 196
- in a single hotspot: 153 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 422MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 42 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Baw where it started7,973 ha reached on 4 Nov1.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Nov | 37.4 °C | 13 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 5 Nov | 36.7 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 6 Nov | 36.5 °C | 10 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 7 Nov | 37.9 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 8 Nov | 38.1 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Nov | 38.9 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 10 Nov | 39.4 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Nov after | 38.5 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Nov after | 37.8 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 13 Nov after | 36.9 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 Nov after | 37.5 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Nov after | 38.0 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 Nov after | 38.0 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Nov after | 38.8 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 18 Nov after | 39.0 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 19 Nov after | 39.4 °C | 14 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 20 Nov after | 39.9 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 196Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Baw fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 November 2017 and 10 November 2017: 7 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 7,935 hectares (79.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Baw (7,973 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very high.
- 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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 196 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.
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.