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Melit fire, November 2025 Melit, Al Fasher

Out · last detection 29 Nov 2025, 23:14 UTC

The fire started on 29 November 2025 in Melit, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,748 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 66th largest in North Darfur since 2016 (of 140 with a page). Number 206 in Sudan in 2025, of 390.

Burnt area
2,748ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
1day
29 Nov 2025 – 29 Nov 2025
Municipalities hit
2
localities
Started on
29 Nov
2025
Heat detections
56
in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Nov29 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

29

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
42km/h · peak gust
22%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. Melit where it started
    2,522 ha reached on 29 Nov
    0.2 %
  2. Al Fasher
    238 ha
    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)
29 Nov 32.1 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
30 Nov after 31.8 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
1 Dec after 31.1 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
2 Dec after 31.0 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
3 Dec after 31.5 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Dec after 31.7 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Dec after 33.4 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Dec after 34.0 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Dec after 34.3 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
8 Dec after 30.6 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
9 Dec after 29.6 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Nov 2025
After · 6 Dec 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 2 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 58 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 45: 3.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak58 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM10245 µg/m³
Optical depth0.34
2728293012
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 · 56Every 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 29 November 2025 and 29 November 2025: 1 day 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 2,748 hectares (27.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Melit (2,522 ha, 0.2 %); Al Fasher (238 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.