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Baw fire, November 2025 Baw

Out · last detection 30 Nov 2025, 12:01 UTC

The fire started on 16 November 2025 in Baw, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,863 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 25th largest in Blue Nile since 2016 (of 96 with a page). Number 114 in Sudan in 2025, of 390.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,863ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
16 Nov 2025 – 30 Nov 2025
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
16 Nov
2025
Heat detections
69
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
287MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Nov 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Nov30 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232527282930

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
45km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

53% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,819 ha in 2017, 823 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,030 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Baw where it started
    3,883 ha reached on 15 Nov
    0.5 %

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)
16 Nov 36.4 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Nov 37.3 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Nov 38.7 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Nov 39.5 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Nov 38.5 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Nov 39.5 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Nov 38.4 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Nov 38.5 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Nov 38.6 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Nov 39.5 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Nov 39.0 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Nov 38.5 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Nov 38.9 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Nov 39.6 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Nov 39.2 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Dec after 38.8 °C 14 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Dec after 39.0 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Dec after 39.0 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Dec after 39.0 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Dec after 38.3 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Dec after 39.0 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Dec after 39.6 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Dec after 39.6 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Dec after 39.0 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Dec after 37.4 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Nov 2025
After · 7 Dec 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 15 November 2025 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak34 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM10113 µg/m³
Optical depth0.50
1415161718192021222324252627282930123
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 · 69Every 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 16 November 2025 and 30 November 2025: 15 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 3,863 hectares (38.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Baw (3,883 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.