Dilling fire, 13 October 2026 Dilling
The fire started on 13 October 2026 in Dilling, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,754 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 230th largest in South Kordofan since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 119 in Sudan in 2026, of 223.
Is it still active?
No detections since 22 Oct 2026, 23:56 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
- Burnt area
- 2,754ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 13 Oct 2026 – 22 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- localities
- Started on
- 13 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 36
- in a single hotspot: 124 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 430MW
- 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.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 204 ha in 2016, 421 ha in 2017, 329 ha in 2020, 55 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 722 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Dilling where it started2,768 ha reached on 13 Oct0.7 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Oct | 35.6 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 45 |
| 14 Oct | 38.3 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 15 Oct | 39.2 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 16 Oct | 38.0 °C | 15 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 17 Oct | 37.1 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 18 Oct | 37.5 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 19 Oct | 37.6 °C | 14 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 20 Oct | 39.0 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 21 Oct | 38.5 °C | 16 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 15 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 60 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 42: 2.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 36Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dilling fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 October 2026 to 22 October 2026 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 October 2026 to 21 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,754 hectares (27.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dilling (2,768 ha, 0.7 %).
- Is the Dilling fire still active?
- No fire detections since 22 Oct 2026, 23:56 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.
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.