Dilling fire, November 2023 Dilling
The fire started on 18 November 2023 in Dilling, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,470 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 286th largest in South Kordofan since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 55 in Sudan in 2023, of 95.
The power measured by the satellite is low (12.1 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
- 2,470ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 18 Nov 2023 – 22 Nov 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- localities
- Started on
- 18 Nov
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 104
- in a single hotspot: 12 MW
- Energy released
- 380MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 650 ha in 2016, 24 ha in 2017, 557 ha in 2019, 1,151 ha in 2020, 328 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,750 ha that had burned before.
- 1,151 ha Dilling fire, November 2020 3,467 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 261 ha Dilling fire, November 2016 2,964 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 24 ha Dilling fire, October 2017 2,970 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dilling where it started2,482 ha reached on 17 Nov0.7 %
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.
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.
Detections table · 104Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,195 haDillingDecember 2020 · 2 days · 8 km away
- 10,784 haDilling17 November 2025 · 13 days · 9 km away
- 4,791 haHabila - SK October 2026 · 5 days · 18 km away
- 4,248 haAl Lagowa 13 October 2026 · 11 days · 21 km away
- 3,920 haAl LagowaDecember 2018 · 5 days · 21 km away
- 3,945 haAl LagowaApril 2026 · 6 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dilling fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 November 2023 and 22 November 2023: 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 2,470 hectares (24.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dilling (2,482 ha, 0.7 %).
- 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.