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Buram fire, 17 November 2023 Buram

Out · last detection 23 Nov 2023, 10:55 UTC

The fire started on 17 November 2023 in Buram, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,951 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 28th largest in South Darfur since 2016 (of 322 with a page). Number 10 in Sudan in 2023, of 95.

Burnt area
5,951ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
17 Nov 2023 – 23 Nov 2023
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
17 Nov
2023
Heat detections
165
in a single hotspot: 68 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
917MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Nov 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Nov23 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

171920212223

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
42km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

8% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 28 ha in 2016, 18 ha in 2018, 32 ha in 2020, 398 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

  1. Buram where it started
    5,987 ha reached on 17 Nov
    1.7 %

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)
17 Nov 36.5 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Nov 36.7 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Nov 36.2 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Nov 35.7 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
21 Nov 34.8 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Nov 36.8 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Nov 38.5 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Nov after 38.7 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Nov after 38.8 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Nov after 39.2 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Nov after 38.8 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
28 Nov after 37.8 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
29 Nov after 37.4 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Nov after 37.7 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
1 Dec after 37.3 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
2 Dec after 37.2 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
3 Dec after 37.2 °C 13 % 42 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 · 10 Nov 2023
After · 30 Nov 2023

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 · 165Every 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 Buram fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 November 2023 and 23 November 2023: 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 5,951 hectares (59.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Buram (5,987 ha, 1.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 42 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.