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Ambassa fire, March 2021 Ambassa, Gandacherra

Out · last measured on 31 Mar 2021

The fire started on 22 March 2021 in Ambassa, India, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,641 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Tripura since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 28 in India in 2021, of 78.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
8,641ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
22 Mar 2021 – 31 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
22 Mar
2021
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

37°high
64km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 59 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 1 Apr.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,403 ha in 2016, 3,220 ha in 2017, 4,085 ha in 2018, 4,245 ha in 2019, 2,660 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,554 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ambassa where it started
    6,716 ha
    12 %
  2. Gandacherra
    1,840 ha
    4.0 %

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)
22 Mar 37.3 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Mar 37.2 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Mar 36.5 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Mar 37.1 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Mar 36.9 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Mar 36.9 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Mar 35.7 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Mar 36.1 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Mar 27.4 °C 74 % 49 km/h 33.5 mm Very low 0
31 Mar 31.9 °C 57 % 64 km/h 0.3 mm Low 9
1 Apr after 34.8 °C 41 % 50 km/h 2.8 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Mar 2021
After · 7 Apr 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.

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ambassa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 March 2021 and 31 March 2021: 10 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 8,641 hectares (86.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ambassa (6,716 ha, 12 %); Gandacherra (1,840 ha, 4.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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.

Report an error
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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.