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RU · 2020 yearbook

Wildfires in Russia in 2020

592 fires larger than 3,000 hectares in Russia in 2020, with 6,254,146 hectares burned according to their perimeters. Here is the whole year: what the official record says, when and where it burned and what the weather was like.

Only fires of 3,000 ha or more get an entry: smaller ones are not in the lists or the entry totals, but they are in the GWIS yearly series.

The year in a few sentences

  1. According to Copernicus GWIS, 16,405,477 hectares burned in Russia in 2020: 1.1 times the average of the other years from 2012 to 2024 (14,772,977 ha). Only 2012, 2014 and 2021 burned more.

    Copernicus GWIS · See the data

  2. The worst week was 15 April to 21 April: 1,294,123 hectares burned in seven days, 8% of the year according to Copernicus GWIS.

    Copernicus GWIS · See the data

  3. The largest fire was the Verkhnekolymsky Ulus fire, which started on 11 July 2020 and burned 156,068 hectares: 2% of the area of the year's 592 fires with a page.

    WorldFires · See the data · Open the fire page

Official burned area
16.4 M ha
Copernicus GWIS · ×1.1 the average
Fires with a page
592
6,254,146 ha within their perimeters
Largest fire
156k ha
Verkhnekolymsky Ulus · 11 Jul
Highest FWI
—
Not yet calculated with the current method

Map of the year

Copernicus GWIS
One circle per fire, sized by its area. Tap one to open its page. Showing the 400 largest of 592.

Month by month

Hectares within the perimeters by the month the fire started. Tap a month to see it on the map.

Week by week, against other years

Copernicus GWIS

Cumulative burned area in 2020 over the lowest and highest of each week in the record since 2012, and its average. The bars below show what burned each week. Tap the chart to see a week. The average and the band are the Copernicus GWIS climatology for 2012–2025, which includes 2020 itself.

0 8.4 M 16.8 M 25.2 M Worst week · 1.3 M ha Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov
2020 average 2012–2025 lowest and highest Hectares each week

Every year since 2012

Copernicus GWIS

Hectares burned per year in the official record. Tap a year to open its yearbook.

2020: 16,405,477 ha Average of the other years: 14,772,977 ha

Cite this

Markdown version

Copy the sentences with their source and link. WorldFires data are CC BY 4.0: credit WorldFires and the original source.

- According to Copernicus GWIS, 16,405,477 hectares burned in Russia in 2020: 1.1 times the average of the other years from 2012 to 2024 (14,772,977 ha). Only 2012, 2014 and 2021 burned more.
- The worst week was 15 April to 21 April: 1,294,123 hectares burned in seven days, 8% of the year according to Copernicus GWIS.
- The largest fire was the Verkhnekolymsky Ulus fire, which started on 11 July 2020 and burned 156,068 hectares: 2% of the area of the year's 592 fires with a page.

WorldFires, “Wildfires in Russia in 2020”, https://worldfires.org/en/country/russia/2020 (accessed 6 November 2026). Sources: Copernicus GWIS, WorldFires.

Fires of 2020, largest first · 592

Burned area in 2020 (Copernicus Land, Sentinel-3)

According to Copernicus Land, 27,232,442 ha burned in 2020: rank 1 of 7 complete years (1 = the most burned). The average of those years is 21,931,975 ha.

The area the Sentinel-3 satellite sees burned each month, separate from the fire pages. It is the same source and the same method every year, so years can be compared with each other. It counts everything that burns, including crop and pasture burning, which is why it does not match the fire pages or the official statistics.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Where most burned in 2020

  1. Sakha Republic 7,790,651 ha
  2. Zabaykalsky Krai 1,539,255 ha
  3. Saratov Oblast 1,015,146 ha
  4. Krasnoyarsk Krai 906,097 ha
  5. Amur Oblast 905,935 ha
  6. Rostov Oblast 885,325 ha
  7. Jewish Autonomous Oblast 881,186 ha
  8. Novosibirsk Oblast 816,382 ha
  9. Volgograd Oblast 766,582 ha
  10. Omsk Oblast 743,092 ha

The whole series since 2018

Source: Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, “Burnt Area 2018-present (raster 300 m), global, monthly – version 4”, monthly Sentinel-3 product, DOI 10.2909/8fa58061-28ab-49bb-9b77-c26b50733e34. Generated using European Union’s Copernicus Land Monitoring Service information; worldfires.org adds up, by country and region, the true area of the 300 m cells where a burn was detected. Latest month published: May 2026. Product page · Methodology

Sources and limits

Fire-page areas are satellite-measured perimeters and may differ from official statistics. The yearly and weekly record is the Copernicus GWIS estimate. The FWI is our own calculation from ERA5 at each fire's location: it is not an official danger warning.

Perimeters: Copernicus EFFIS and GWIS (and MTBS, NIFC or NBAC in North America). Hotspots: NASA FIRMS (VIIRS). Weather: Copernicus ERA5 via Open-Meteo. How it is calculated