Um Dafoug fire, January 2017 Um Dafoug
The fire started on 4 January 2017 in Um Dafoug, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,076 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 292th largest in South Darfur since 2016 (of 322 with a page). Number 121 in Sudan in 2017, of 137.
- Burnt area
- 2,076ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 4 Jan 2017 – 9 Jan 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- localities
- Started on
- 4 Jan
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 67
- in a single hotspot: 37 MW
- Energy released
- 574MW
- sum of detected power
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.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Um Dafoug where it started2,090 ha reached on 4 Jan0.4 %
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.
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.
Detections table · 67Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,302 haUm DafougFebruary 2026 · 5 days · 13 km away
- 6,010 haUm Dafoug5 January 2026 · 4 days · 19 km away
- 4,161 haUm Dafoug24 November 2021 · 4 days · 34 km away
- 7,396 haUm Dafoug2 December 2021 · 6 days · 35 km away
- 5,309 haUm DafougFebruary 2021 · 7 days · 35 km away
- 5,374 haAl Radoum 15 October 2026 · 9 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Um Dafoug fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 January 2017 and 9 January 2017: 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 2,076 hectares (20.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Um Dafoug (2,090 ha, 0.4 %).
- 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.