Badi fire, April 2020 Badi, Budni, Sohagpur
The fire started on 13 April 2020 in Badi, India, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,643 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 30th largest in Madhya Pradesh since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 9 in India in 2020, of 18.
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
- 8,643ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 13 Apr 2020 – 19 Apr 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 13 Apr
- 2020
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 27 Apr.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,148 ha in 2016, 3,860 ha in 2017, 2,720 ha in 2018, 3,215 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,559 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Badi where it started8,162 ha16 %
-
490 ha0.8 %
-
24 ha0.0 %
-
0 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Apr | 39.4 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Apr | 40.1 °C | 22 % | 21 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Apr | 40.0 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 16 Apr | 40.8 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Apr | 40.8 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Apr | 38.5 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 1.3 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Apr | 37.8 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 20 Apr after | 37.2 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Apr after | 37.5 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 22 Apr after | 37.9 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Apr after | 38.7 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Apr after | 39.7 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Apr after | 38.7 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 26 Apr after | 38.4 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Apr after | 37.2 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 30 |
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 Badi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 April 2020 and 19 April 2020: 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 8,643 hectares (86.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Badi (8,162 ha, 16 %); Budni (490 ha, 0.8 %); Sohagpur (24 ha, 0.0 %); Babai (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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
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.