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Dilling fire, December 2016 Dilling

Out · last detection 15 Dec 2016, 23:42 UTC

The fire started on 11 December 2016 in Dilling, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,178 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 96th largest in South Kordofan since 2016 (of 440 with a page). Number 43 in Sudan in 2016, of 169.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.1 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
4,178ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
11 Dec 2016 – 15 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
11 Dec
2016
Heat detections
115
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
530MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Dec15 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
48km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Dilling where it started
    4,208 ha reached on 11 Dec
    1.1 %

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)
11 Dec 32.0 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Dec 32.5 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Dec 32.6 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Dec 30.0 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
15 Dec 29.0 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 Dec after 29.6 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Dec after 29.3 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Dec after 31.4 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Dec after 31.8 °C 16 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
20 Dec after 30.8 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Dec after 30.5 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Dec after 31.8 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Dec after 34.3 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Dec after 33.9 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Dec after 28.1 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Dec 2016
After · 22 Dec 2016

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 · 115Every 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 Dilling fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 December 2016 and 15 December 2016: 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 4,178 hectares (41.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dilling (4,208 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % 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.

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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.