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Keilak fire, January 2017 Keilak

Out · last detection 14 Jan 2017, 11:45 UTC

The fire started on 2 January 2017 in Keilak, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,009 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 12th largest in West Kordofan since 2016 (of 175 with a page). Number 15 in Sudan in 2017, of 137.

Burnt area
6,009ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
2 Jan 2017 – 14 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
2 Jan
2017
Heat detections
202
in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start
65
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Jan14 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

234567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
46km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 136 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Keilak where it started
    6,043 ha reached on 2 Jan
    0.7 %

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 Jan 37.5 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
3 Jan 37.3 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
4 Jan 36.2 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
5 Jan 37.2 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
6 Jan 38.6 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
7 Jan 39.3 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
8 Jan 38.8 °C 7 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
9 Jan 36.8 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
10 Jan 37.5 °C 6 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
11 Jan 38.7 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
12 Jan 39.9 °C 8 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
13 Jan 39.3 °C 6 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
14 Jan 39.6 °C 7 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
15 Jan after 40.5 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
16 Jan after 40.5 °C 6 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
17 Jan after 40.7 °C 6 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
18 Jan after 41.0 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
19 Jan after 40.8 °C 7 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
20 Jan after 40.1 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
21 Jan after 40.0 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
22 Jan after 40.3 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
23 Jan after 40.3 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
24 Jan after 40.4 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Dec 2016
After · 21 Jan 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 · 202Every 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 Keilak fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 January 2017 and 14 January 2017: 13 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 6,009 hectares (60.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Keilak (6,043 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.9 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very 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.