Ghadeer fire, 3 December 2020 Ghadeer
The fire started on 3 December 2020 in Ghadeer, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,024 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 200th largest in South Kordofan since 2016 (of 440 with a page). Number 60 in Sudan in 2020, of 151.
- Burnt area
- 3,024ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 3 Dec 2020 – 7 Dec 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- localities
- Started on
- 3 Dec
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 100
- in a single hotspot: 208 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.2GW
- 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 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,726 ha in 2016, 1,318 ha in 2017, 1,931 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,628 ha that had burned before.
- 1,931 ha Ghadeer fire, November 2019 17,958 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,726 ha Ghadeer fire, November 2016 17,636 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 983 ha Ghadeer fire, November 2017 5,855 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 57 ha Ghadeer fire, November 2017 3,768 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ghadeer where it started3,037 ha reached on 3 Dec0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Dec | 35.7 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 4 Dec | 36.0 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 5 Dec | 36.3 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 6 Dec | 36.6 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 7 Dec | 37.4 °C | 18 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 8 Dec after | 37.1 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 9 Dec after | 37.1 °C | 13 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 10 Dec after | 37.3 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 11 Dec after | 37.8 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Dec after | 38.3 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 13 Dec after | 38.0 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 14 Dec after | 37.1 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 15 Dec after | 36.9 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 16 Dec after | 36.8 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 17 Dec after | 35.4 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
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 · 100Every 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 Ghadeer fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 December 2020 and 7 December 2020: 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 3,024 hectares (30.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ghadeer (3,037 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.