Babai fire, April 2019 Babai, Budni
The fire started on 8 April 2019 in Babai, India, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,152 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 40th largest in Madhya Pradesh since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 16 in India in 2019, of 28.
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
- 7,152ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 8 Apr 2019 – 14 Apr 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 8 Apr
- 2019
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 51 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 16 Apr.
This area had burned before
79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,381 ha in 2016, 2,829 ha in 2017, 3,008 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,645 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Babai where it started7,043 ha11 %
-
145 ha0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Apr | 39.6 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 9 Apr | 40.2 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 10 Apr | 40.8 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 45 |
| 11 Apr | 41.0 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 12 Apr | 40.7 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 13 Apr | 41.6 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 14 Apr | 41.7 °C | 15 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Apr after | 38.8 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 16 Apr after | 32.2 °C | 40 % | 26 km/h | 3.3 mm | Low 10 |
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.
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Babai fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 April 2019 and 14 April 2019: 7 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 7,152 hectares (71.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Babai (7,043 ha, 11 %); Budni (145 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
- 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
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.