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Dilling fire, November 2020 Dilling

Out · last detection 21 Nov 2020, 10:23 UTC

The fire started on 19 November 2020 in Dilling, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,467 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 146th largest in South Kordofan since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 41 in Sudan in 2020, of 151.

Burnt area
3,467ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
19 Nov 2020 – 21 Nov 2020
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
19 Nov
2020
Heat detections
82
in a single hotspot: 166 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
824MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Nov 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Nov21 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

192021

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
50km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 363 ha in 2016, 1,350 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Dilling where it started
    3,483 ha reached on 19 Nov
    0.9 %

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)
19 Nov 35.2 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Nov 34.6 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Nov 33.6 °C 14 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Nov after 33.8 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Nov after 34.5 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Nov after 35.4 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Nov after 35.7 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Nov after 35.0 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Nov after 35.1 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Nov after 34.3 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Nov after 32.6 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Nov after 32.8 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Dec after 33.1 °C 9 % 37 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 · 12 Nov 2020
After · 28 Nov 2020

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 · 82Every 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 19 November 2020 and 21 November 2020: 3 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 3,467 hectares (34.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dilling (3,483 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.