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Aldansky Ulus fire, 7 August 2021 Aldansky Ulus

Out · last detection 22 Aug 2021, 18:42 UTC

The fire started on 7 August 2021 in Aldansky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,378 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1283th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1422 with a page). Number 515 in Russia in 2021, of 581.

Burnt area
3,378ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
7 Aug 2021 – 22 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
7 Aug
2021
Heat detections
684
in a single hotspot: 99 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
3.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Aug22 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

789101112131415161718192122

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
54km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 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. Aldansky Ulus where it started
    3,388 ha reached on 7 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
7 Aug 22.3 °C 39 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
8 Aug 25.7 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
9 Aug 27.4 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
10 Aug 30.0 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
11 Aug 31.6 °C 34 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
12 Aug 31.3 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 Aug 29.0 °C 43 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Aug 30.9 °C 37 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
15 Aug 32.5 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Aug 31.9 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
17 Aug 29.2 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Aug 23.8 °C 44 % 47 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 21
19 Aug 27.2 °C 38 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
20 Aug 27.2 °C 52 % 30 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 18
21 Aug 31.1 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.5 mm High 22
22 Aug 31.2 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
23 Aug after 27.8 °C 52 % 18 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
24 Aug after 26.5 °C 53 % 29 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 18
25 Aug after 19.2 °C 69 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
26 Aug after 22.0 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
27 Aug after 17.6 °C 66 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
28 Aug after 11.7 °C 52 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
29 Aug after 14.4 °C 52 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
30 Aug after 20.2 °C 38 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
31 Aug after 15.9 °C 61 % 26 km/h 0.9 mm Low 8
1 Sept after 18.7 °C 42 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Jul 2021
After · 29 Aug 2021

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 · 684Every 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 Russia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Aldansky Ulus fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 August 2021 and 22 August 2021: 16 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 3,378 hectares (33.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Aldansky Ulus (3,388 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Russia (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 ADM2 (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.