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Dilling fire, October 2017 Dilling

Out · last detection 28 Oct 2017, 12:04 UTC

The fire started on 24 October 2017 in Dilling, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,970 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 207th largest in South Kordofan since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 65 in Sudan in 2017, of 137.

Burnt area
2,970ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
24 Oct 2017 – 27 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
24 Oct
2017
Heat detections
71
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
376MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Oct27 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2425262728

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
42km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,054 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Dilling where it started
    2,984 ha reached on 18 Oct
    0.8 %

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)
24 Oct 36.0 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Oct 36.6 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Oct 37.2 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Oct 36.8 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Oct after 36.5 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Oct after 36.5 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Oct after 35.5 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Oct after 35.6 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Nov after 35.3 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
2 Nov after 36.0 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Nov after 35.2 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Nov after 34.3 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Nov after 33.9 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Nov after 34.2 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Oct 2017
After · 3 Nov 2017

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 · 71Every 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 24 October 2017 and 27 October 2017: 4 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 2,970 hectares (29.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dilling (2,984 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
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.