Buram fire, 20 December 2024 Buram
The fire started on 20 December 2024 in Buram, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,120 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 117th largest in South Darfur since 2016 (of 325 with a page). Number 32 in Sudan in 2024, of 89.
- Burnt area
- 3,120ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 20 Dec 2024 – 26 Dec 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- localities
- Started on
- 20 Dec
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 129
- in a single hotspot: 109 MW
- Danger at start
- 62
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.5GW
- sum of detected power
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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,424 ha in 2016, 1,795 ha in 2018, 2,169 ha in 2020, 1,327 ha in 2021, 1,421 ha in 2022, 1,040 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,974 ha that had burned before.
- 1,795 ha Buram fire, December 2018 2,279 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 56 ha Buram fire, November 2023 2,399 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Buram fire, November 2023 5,951 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Buram where it started3,138 ha reached on 20 Dec0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Dec | 33.0 °C | 18 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 21 Dec | 31.7 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 22 Dec | 31.9 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 23 Dec | 33.4 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 24 Dec | 32.7 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 25 Dec | 33.4 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 26 Dec | 33.3 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 27 Dec after | 33.6 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 28 Dec after | 31.7 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 29 Dec after | 32.5 °C | 9 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 30 Dec after | 31.3 °C | 10 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 31 Dec after | 30.3 °C | 10 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 1 Jan after | 29.2 °C | 11 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 2 Jan after | 29.9 °C | 10 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 3 Jan after | 32.0 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 4 Jan after | 34.9 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 5 Jan after | 36.4 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 21 December 2024 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 129Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,198 haBuram23 November 2025 · 17 days · 7 km away
- 5,951 haBuram17 November 2023 · 7 days · 8 km away
- 3,272 haBuram28 December 2024 · 12 days · 20 km away
- 4,080 haBuramDecember 2022 · 10 days · 21 km away
- 7,015 haBuram9 December 2025 · 8 days · 23 km away
- 3,225 haAl Radoum11 December 2025 · 3 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Buram fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 December 2024 and 26 December 2024: 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 3,120 hectares (31.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Buram (3,138 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.
Report an error
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.