Melit fire, 23 October 2025 Melit, Al Fasher
The fire started on 23 October 2025 in Melit, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,737 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 34th largest in North Darfur since 2016 (of 140 with a page). Number 121 in Sudan in 2025, of 390.
- Burnt area
- 3,737ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 23 Oct 2025 – 24 Oct 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- localities
- Started on
- 23 Oct
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 59
- in a single hotspot: 79 MW
- Danger at start
- 66
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 208MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 46 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
-
Melit where it started3,179 ha reached on 22 Oct0.2 %
-
580 ha reached on 23 Oct0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Oct | 34.7 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 24 Oct | 34.2 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 25 Oct after | 33.5 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 26 Oct after | 34.6 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 27 Oct after | 33.1 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 28 Oct after | 33.2 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 29 Oct after | 33.8 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 30 Oct after | 33.2 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 31 Oct after | 32.9 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 1 Nov after | 32.7 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 2 Nov after | 33.4 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 3 Nov after | 34.4 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 24 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).
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 · 59Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Melit fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 October 2025 and 24 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 3,737 hectares (37.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Melit (3,179 ha, 0.2 %); Al Fasher (580 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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.
Report an error
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.