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Mukjar fire, 8 November 2016 Mukjar

Out · last detection 13 Nov 2016, 23:42 UTC

The fire started on 8 November 2016 in Mukjar, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,312 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 17th largest in Central Darfur since 2016 (of 45 with a page). Number 62 in Sudan in 2016, of 169.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.2 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
3,312ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
8 Nov 2016 – 13 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
8 Nov
2016
Heat detections
88
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
585MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Nov13 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

8910111213

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
38km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 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

  1. Mukjar where it started
    3,337 ha reached on 8 Nov
    0.5 %

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)
8 Nov 32.2 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Nov 32.4 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Nov 32.3 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Nov 32.6 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Nov 32.6 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Nov 31.8 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Nov after 32.8 °C 17 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Nov after 32.6 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Nov after 33.4 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Nov after 32.6 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Nov after 30.9 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Nov after 32.3 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Nov after 32.6 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Nov after 33.4 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Nov after 33.4 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Nov after 33.7 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Nov 2016
After · 20 Nov 2016

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

Detections table · 88Every 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 Mukjar fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 November 2016 and 13 November 2016: 6 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 3,312 hectares (33.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mukjar (3,337 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
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.