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Baw fire, 6 November 2017 Baw

Out · last detection 12 Nov 2017, 23:17 UTC

The fire started on 6 November 2017 in Baw, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,681 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 17th largest in Blue Nile since 2016 (of 96 with a page). Number 27 in Sudan in 2017, of 137.

Burnt area
4,681ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
6 Nov 2017 – 12 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
6 Nov
2017
Heat detections
109
in a single hotspot: 34 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
656MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Nov12 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
40km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 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. Baw where it started
    4,714 ha reached on 6 Nov
    0.6 %

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)
6 Nov 34.0 °C 12 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Nov 35.4 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Nov 35.8 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Nov 36.5 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Nov 36.3 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Nov 36.0 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Nov 35.8 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Nov after 34.3 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Nov after 36.2 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Nov after 36.9 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Nov after 36.0 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Nov after 36.5 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Nov after 36.9 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Nov after 37.1 °C 12 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Nov after 36.8 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Nov after 35.2 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Nov after 33.8 °C 12 % 41 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 · 30 Oct 2017
After · 19 Nov 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.

Detections table · 109Every 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 6 November 2017 and 12 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 4,681 hectares (46.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Baw (4,714 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.

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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.