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Dilling fire, 14 October 2026 Dilling, Al Lagowa

Out · last detection 21 Oct 2026, 12:17 UTC

The fire started on 14 October 2026 in Dilling, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,344 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 319th largest in South Kordofan since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 162 in Sudan in 2026, of 223.

Burnt area
2,344ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
14 Oct 2026 – 21 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
2
localities
Started on
14 Oct
2026
Heat detections
37
in a single hotspot: 37 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
259MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Oct 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Oct21 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

14161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
46km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 147 ha in 2017, 159 ha in 2018, 1,294 ha in 2019, 757 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,641 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dilling where it started
    1,874 ha reached on 14 Oct
    0.5 %
  2. Al Lagowa
    483 ha reached on 16 Oct
    0.1 %

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)
14 Oct 39.2 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 52
15 Oct 40.2 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Oct 39.1 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
17 Oct 38.1 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
18 Oct 38.2 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Oct 38.6 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
20 Oct 39.2 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
21 Oct 39.3 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
22 Oct after 39.6 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Oct 2026
After · 23 Oct 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 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).

PM2.5 peak60 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10210 µg/m³
Optical depth0.52
12131415161718192021
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 37Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 October 2026 to 21 October 2026 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 October 2026 to 21 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,344 hectares (23.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dilling (1,874 ha, 0.5 %); Al Lagowa (483 ha, 0.1 %).
Is the Dilling fire still active?
No fire detections since 21 Oct 2026, 12:17 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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.