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SD · Sudan · →

Melit fire, 30 September 2025 Melit

Out · last detection 1 Oct 2025, 10:46 UTC

The fire started on 30 September 2025 in Melit, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,621 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 36th largest in North Darfur since 2016 (of 140 with a page). Number 126 in Sudan in 2025, of 390.

The power measured by the satellite is low (10.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,621ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
30 Sept 2025 – 1 Oct 2025
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
30 Sept
2025
Heat detections
51
in a single hotspot: 11 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
235MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Oct 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Sept1 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

301

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
41km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 29 ha in 2019, 777 ha in 2021, 174 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Melit where it started
    3,636 ha reached on 30 Sept
    0.2 %

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)
30 Sept 37.7 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Oct 37.2 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Oct after 35.4 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 48
3 Oct after 36.1 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Oct after 36.3 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Oct after 35.6 °C 15 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
6 Oct after 35.6 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
7 Oct after 35.5 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Oct after 35.6 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
9 Oct after 37.1 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Oct after 35.8 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Oct after 36.0 °C 15 % 42 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 · 23 Sept 2025
After · 8 Oct 2025

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 1 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak32 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM10128 µg/m³
Optical depth0.54
2829301234
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)

Detections table · 51Every 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 Melit fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 September 2025 and 1 October 2025: 2 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 3,621 hectares (36.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Melit (3,636 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.