Buram fire, 9 December 2025 Buram
The fire started on 9 December 2025 in Buram, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,015 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 22th largest in South Darfur since 2016 (of 322 with a page). Number 45 in Sudan in 2025, of 390.
- Burnt area
- 7,015ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 9 Dec 2025 – 16 Dec 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- localities
- Started on
- 9 Dec
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 171
- in a single hotspot: 36 MW
- Danger at start
- 60
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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 49 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,117 ha in 2016, 1,206 ha in 2017, 736 ha in 2018, 4,679 ha in 2020, 2,136 ha in 2021, 4,757 ha in 2022, 634 ha in 2023, 3,342 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,487 ha that had burned before.
- 2,883 ha Buram fire, December 2022 4,080 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,297 ha Buram fire, December 2024 3,272 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 966 ha Buram fire, January 2022 2,306 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Buram where it started7,053 ha reached on 8 Dec2.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Dec | 34.2 °C | 15 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 10 Dec | 33.3 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 11 Dec | 33.5 °C | 15 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 12 Dec | 34.0 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 13 Dec | 33.8 °C | 10 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 14 Dec | 32.5 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 15 Dec | 31.1 °C | 10 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 16 Dec | 30.2 °C | 13 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 17 Dec after | 30.7 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 18 Dec after | 30.7 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 19 Dec after | 31.4 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 20 Dec after | 32.4 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 21 Dec after | 33.8 °C | 9 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 22 Dec after | 34.6 °C | 8 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 23 Dec after | 34.8 °C | 8 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 24 Dec after | 35.7 °C | 7 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 25 Dec after | 36.4 °C | 7 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 26 Dec after | 35.5 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
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 17 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 44 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 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 · 171Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Buram fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 December 2025 and 16 December 2025: 8 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 7,015 hectares (70.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Buram (7,053 ha, 2.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.