Skip to content
worldfires
SD · Sudan · →

Heiban fire, 4 November 2016 Heiban

Out · last detection 10 Nov 2016, 12:04 UTC

The fire started on 4 November 2016 in Heiban, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,192 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 95th largest in South Kordofan since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 41 in Sudan in 2016, of 169.

Burnt area
4,192ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
4 Nov 2016 – 9 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
4 Nov
2016
Heat detections
84
in a single hotspot: 108 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Nov9 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

456710

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
41km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 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. Heiban where it started
    4,221 ha reached on 4 Nov
    1.2 %

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)
4 Nov 36.4 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Nov 35.9 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Nov 36.3 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Nov 36.4 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Nov 35.9 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Nov 36.4 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Nov after 36.6 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Nov after 36.9 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Nov after 37.1 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Nov after 37.7 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Nov after 37.2 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Nov after 37.5 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Nov after 37.3 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
17 Nov after 36.9 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Nov after 36.4 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Nov after 36.8 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Oct 2016
After · 16 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 · 84Every 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 Heiban fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 November 2016 and 9 November 2016: 6 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 4,192 hectares (41.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Heiban (4,221 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.