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Mukjar fire, October 2023 Mukjar

Out · last detection 26 Oct 2023, 00:13 UTC

The fire started on 19 October 2023 in Mukjar, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,421 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 3th largest in Central Darfur since 2016 (of 45 with a page). Number 7 in Sudan in 2023, of 95.

Burnt area
6,421ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
19 Oct 2023 – 26 Oct 2023
Municipalities hit
1
localities
Started on
19 Oct
2023
Heat detections
196
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Oct 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Oct26 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
49km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 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
    6,461 ha reached on 19 Oct
    1.0 %

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)
19 Oct 35.3 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Oct 33.8 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Oct 35.0 °C 19 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Oct 36.6 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Oct 36.2 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Oct 36.5 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Oct 36.5 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Oct 36.4 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Oct after 33.0 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
28 Oct after 33.4 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Oct after 35.3 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Oct after 36.2 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Oct after 36.1 °C 17 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Nov after 32.1 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Nov after 35.1 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Nov after 34.6 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Nov after 34.8 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Nov after 34.8 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Oct 2023
After · 2 Nov 2023

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 · 196Every 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 19 October 2023 and 26 October 2023: 8 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 6,421 hectares (64.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mukjar (6,461 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.