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Ghadeer fire, December 2017 Ghadeer, Heiban

Out · last detection 6 Dec 2017, 11:32 UTC

The fire started on 2 December 2017 in Ghadeer, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,940 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 108th largest in South Kordofan since 2016 (of 440 with a page). Number 34 in Sudan in 2017, of 137.

Burnt area
3,940ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
2 Dec 2017 – 6 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
2
localities
Started on
2 Dec
2017
Heat detections
82
in a single hotspot: 112 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
677MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Dec6 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

23456

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
41km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 184 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Ghadeer where it started
    3,495 ha reached on 2 Dec
    0.5 %
  2. Heiban
    474 ha reached on 2 Dec
    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)
2 Dec 36.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Dec 36.8 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Dec 37.9 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Dec 38.0 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Dec 38.2 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Dec after 36.2 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
8 Dec after 35.5 °C 18 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
9 Dec after 36.7 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Dec after 37.6 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Dec after 38.4 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Dec after 37.9 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Dec after 37.7 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Dec after 36.8 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
15 Dec after 36.1 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
16 Dec after 36.2 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Nov 2017
After · 13 Dec 2017

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 Ghadeer fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 December 2017 and 6 December 2017: 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 3,940 hectares (39.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ghadeer (3,495 ha, 0.5 %); Heiban (474 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.