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Aheri fire, February 2016 Aheri, Sironcha

Out · last detection 22 Feb 2016, 07:16 UTC

The fire started on 14 February 2016 in Aheri, India, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,132 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Mahārāshtra since 2016 (of 17 with a page). Number 35 in India in 2016, of 47.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.8 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
6,132ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
14 Feb 2016 – 22 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
14 Feb
2016
Heat detections
239
in a single hotspot: 30 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
813MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Feb22 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819202122

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
41km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 1 Mar.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Aheri where it started
    4,443 ha reached on 15 Feb
    1.9 %
  2. Sironcha
    1,715 ha reached on 14 Feb
    1.3 %

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)
13 Feb 32.0 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
14 Feb 32.4 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
15 Feb 34.4 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Feb 33.5 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Feb 34.3 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Feb 34.8 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Feb 35.7 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Feb 35.7 °C 27 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Feb 36.6 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Feb 35.6 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Feb after 34.8 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Feb after 33.0 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Feb after 33.7 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Feb after 34.0 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Feb after 32.5 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Feb after 33.8 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
29 Feb after 33.4 °C 40 % 24 km/h 0.4 mm High 28
1 Mar after 32.4 °C 48 % 24 km/h 2.0 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Feb 2016
After · 29 Feb 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 · 239Every 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 India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Aheri fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 February 2016 and 22 February 2016: 9 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 6,132 hectares (61.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Aheri (4,443 ha, 1.9 %); Sironcha (1,715 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of India (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.

Emergency number: 112

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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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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 ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.