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Melit fire, 17 October 2025 Melit, Al Malha

Out · last detection 21 Oct 2025, 11:12 UTC

The fire started on 17 October 2025 in Melit, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,445 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in North Darfur since 2016 (of 140 with a page). Number 7 in Sudan in 2025, of 390.

Burnt area
15,445ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
17 Oct 2025 – 21 Oct 2025
Municipalities hit
2
localities
Started on
17 Oct
2025
Heat detections
276
in a single hotspot: 126 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Oct 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Oct21 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
48km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 49 ha in 2019, 215 ha in 2021, 585 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Melit where it started
    11,944 ha reached on 15 Oct
    0.7 %
  2. Al Malha
    3,564 ha reached on 20 Oct
    0.0 %

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)
17 Oct 35.0 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Oct 35.4 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
19 Oct 34.8 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
20 Oct 34.5 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
21 Oct 34.0 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
22 Oct after 34.1 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Oct after 34.9 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
24 Oct after 34.0 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
25 Oct after 34.1 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
26 Oct after 34.2 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
27 Oct after 32.8 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
28 Oct after 33.1 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
29 Oct after 33.8 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
30 Oct after 33.2 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
31 Oct after 32.9 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Oct 2025
After · 28 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 21 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 37 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak37 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10169 µg/m³
Optical depth0.49
15161718192021222324
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 · 276Every 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 17 October 2025 and 21 October 2025: 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 15,445 hectares (154.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Melit (11,944 ha, 0.7 %); Al Malha (3,564 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 76, 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.