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Baw fire, December 2017 Baw

Out · last detection 20 Dec 2017, 10:29 UTC

The fire started on 14 December 2017 in Baw, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,351 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 15th largest in Blue Nile since 2016 (of 96 with a page). Number 22 in Sudan in 2017, of 137.

Burnt area
5,351ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
14 Dec 2017 – 20 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
14 Dec
2017
Heat detections
172
in a single hotspot: 119 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
986MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Dec20 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
36km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 47 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,535 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Baw where it started
    5,387 ha reached on 14 Dec
    0.7 %

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)
14 Dec 36.7 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Dec 36.2 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Dec 36.8 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Dec 37.1 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Dec 37.7 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Dec 38.2 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Dec 38.7 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Dec after 38.9 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Dec after 38.8 °C 8 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Dec after 38.4 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
24 Dec after 38.3 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
25 Dec after 36.2 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
26 Dec after 36.4 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
27 Dec after 37.3 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Dec after 37.7 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
29 Dec after 37.3 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
30 Dec after 36.8 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Dec 2017
After · 27 Dec 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 · 172Every 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 14 December 2017 and 20 December 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 5,351 hectares (53.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Baw (5,387 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.