Ghadeer fire, November 2020 Ghadeer, Abu Jubayhah
The fire started on 18 November 2020 in Ghadeer, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,214 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 13th largest in South Kordofan since 2016 (of 447 with a page). Number 2 in Sudan in 2020, of 151.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 11,214ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 28days
- 18 Nov 2020 – 15 Dec 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- localities
- Started on
- 18 Nov
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 442
- in a single hotspot: 245 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 318MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,015 ha in 2016, 6,916 ha in 2017, 3,853 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,341 ha that had burned before.
- 6,885 ha Ghadeer fire, November 2017 19,361 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,439 ha Ghadeer fire, November 2019 3,153 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 887 ha Ghadeer fire, November 2016 2,031 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 128 ha Ghadeer fire, November 2016 17,636 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 48 ha Abu Jubayhah fire, November 2019 7,912 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 23 ha Ghadeer fire, November 2019 2,196 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Ghadeer where it started11,088 ha reached on 18 Nov1.7 %
-
179 ha reached on 22 Nov0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Nov | 37.3 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 19 Nov | 37.1 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 20 Nov | 36.4 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 21 Nov | 36.5 °C | 12 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 22 Nov | 36.7 °C | 14 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 23 Nov | 37.1 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Nov | 37.5 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Nov | 37.4 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 26 Nov | 36.8 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 27 Nov | 37.0 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 28 Nov | 36.7 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 29 Nov | 35.5 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 30 Nov | 34.9 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 1 Dec | 35.5 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 2 Dec | 35.5 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 3 Dec | 36.0 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 4 Dec | 36.4 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 5 Dec | 36.7 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 6 Dec | 36.9 °C | 10 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 7 Dec | 37.6 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 8 Dec | 37.5 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 9 Dec | 37.4 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 10 Dec | 37.8 °C | 16 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 11 Dec | 38.2 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 12 Dec | 38.5 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 13 Dec | 38.3 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 14 Dec | 37.4 °C | 12 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 15 Dec | 37.2 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 16 Dec after | 36.9 °C | 12 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 17 Dec after | 35.5 °C | 14 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 18 Dec after | 35.6 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 19 Dec after | 35.8 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 20 Dec after | 36.2 °C | 20 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 21 Dec after | 37.0 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 22 Dec after | 38.0 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 23 Dec after | 38.1 °C | 16 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 24 Dec after | 37.5 °C | 16 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 25 Dec after | 38.2 °C | 17 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
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 · 442Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 19,361 haGhadeer8 November 2017 · 15 days · 2 km away
- 19,334 haGhadeer2 December 2024 · 16 days · 13 km away
- 17,636 haGhadeer2 November 2016 · 16 days · 13 km away
- 19,743 haGhadeer5 December 2025 · 27 days · 20 km away
- 26,225 haGhadeer14 December 2025 · 32 days · 24 km away
- 17,958 haGhadeer26 November 2019 · 20 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ghadeer fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 November 2020 to 15 December 2020 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 November 2020 to 8 December 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,214 hectares (112.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ghadeer (11,088 ha, 1.7 %); Abu Jubayhah (179 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 8 December 2020 → 15 December 2020.
- Start date: 19 November 2020 → 18 November 2020.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 November 2020 to 8 December 2020. 442 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.