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Ghadeer fire, October 2016 Ghadeer

Out · last detection 2 Nov 2016, 00:07 UTC

The fire started on 28 October 2016 in Ghadeer, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,359 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 54th largest in South Kordofan since 2016 (of 440 with a page). Number 22 in Sudan in 2016, of 169.

Burnt area
5,359ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
28 Oct 2016 – 1 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
28 Oct
2016
Heat detections
144
in a single hotspot: 113 MW
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Oct1 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2829303112

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
36km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Ghadeer where it started
    5,400 ha reached on 28 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)
28 Oct 33.6 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
29 Oct 36.6 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Oct 36.6 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Oct 37.7 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Nov 37.8 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Nov after 36.9 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Nov after 37.5 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Nov after 37.3 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Nov after 36.6 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Nov after 37.0 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Nov after 37.0 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Nov after 36.3 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Nov after 36.6 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Nov after 37.2 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Nov after 37.5 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Oct 2016
After · 8 Nov 2016

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 · 144Every 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 Ghadeer fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 October 2016 and 1 November 2016: 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 5,359 hectares (53.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ghadeer (5,400 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class 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.