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Damso fire, December 2021 Damso, Al Radoum, Buram

Out · last detection 12 Dec 2021, 11:27 UTC

The fire started on 8 December 2021 in Damso, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,219 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 111th largest in South Darfur since 2016 (of 322 with a page). Number 52 in Sudan in 2021, of 149.

Burnt area
3,219ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
8 Dec 2021 – 12 Dec 2021
Municipalities hit
3
localities
Started on
8 Dec
2021
Heat detections
67
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
66
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
497MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Dec 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Dec12 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

89101112

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
46km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Damso where it started
    1,570 ha reached on 8 Dec
    0.9 %
  2. Al Radoum
    893 ha reached on 8 Dec
    0.0 %
  3. Buram
    780 ha reached on 9 Dec
    0.2 %

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)
8 Dec 35.0 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
9 Dec 32.8 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
10 Dec 34.0 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Dec 35.1 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
12 Dec 35.9 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
13 Dec after 36.5 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
14 Dec after 36.7 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Dec after 35.7 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
16 Dec after 34.1 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
17 Dec after 32.2 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
18 Dec after 31.0 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
19 Dec after 31.0 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Dec after 31.4 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
21 Dec after 30.2 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
22 Dec after 30.8 °C 11 % 45 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 · 1 Dec 2021
After · 19 Dec 2021

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 · 67Every 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 Damso fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 December 2021 and 12 December 2021: 5 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 3,219 hectares (32.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Damso (1,570 ha, 0.9 %); Al Radoum (893 ha, 0.0 %); Buram (780 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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.