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Kulbus fire, January 2026 Kulbus

Out · last measured on 14 Jan 2026

The fire started on 10 January 2026 in Kulbus, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,340 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the largest fire in West Darfur since 2016 (of 18 with a page). Number 14 in Sudan in 2026, of 215.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks them up automatically when they are available.

Burnt area
6,340ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
10 Jan 2026 – 14 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
10 Jan
2026
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

29°high
49km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Kulbus where it started
    6,373 ha
    2.2 %

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)
10 Jan 25.8 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
11 Jan 29.0 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Jan 29.1 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Jan 25.9 °C 9 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
14 Jan 25.3 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
15 Jan after 24.6 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Jan after 26.9 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Jan after 28.6 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Jan after 28.8 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Jan after 30.1 °C 5 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Jan after 29.7 °C 9 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Jan after 32.7 °C 7 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jan after 34.4 °C 7 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Jan after 34.4 °C 9 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Jan after 34.4 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Jan 2026
After · 21 Jan 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 14 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 122 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 83: 5.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak122 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10693 µg/m³
Optical depth0.46
891011121314151617
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Sudan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kulbus fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 January 2026 and 14 January 2026: 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 6,340 hectares (63.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kulbus (6,373 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.1 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.