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Barnala fire, 28 October 2016 Barnala, Sangrur, Tapa

Out · last detection 16 Nov 2016, 08:34 UTC

The fire started on 28 October 2016 in Barnala, India, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 39,116 hectares from heat detections, spread across 6 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Punjab since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 3 in India in 2016, of 47.

Burnt area
39,116ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
28 Oct 2016 – 15 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
6
subdistricts
Started on
28 Oct
2016
Heat detections
3,709
in a single hotspot: 108 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
26.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Oct15 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2829303112345678910111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
31km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 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. Barnala where it started
    11,740 ha reached on 21 Oct
    14 %
  2. Sangrur
    10,677 ha reached on 23 Oct
    24 %
  3. Tapa
    9,526 ha reached on 21 Oct
    16 %
  4. Sunam
    4,540 ha reached on 23 Oct
    8.8 %
  5. Mansa
    2,316 ha reached on 21 Oct
    2.6 %
  6. Dhuri
    420 ha reached on 22 Oct
    0.7 %

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)
21 Oct 33.8 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Oct 33.4 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Oct 33.0 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Oct 33.0 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Oct 32.6 °C 27 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Oct 32.4 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Oct 32.4 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Oct 31.6 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Oct 31.6 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Oct 30.8 °C 29 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Oct 30.3 °C 31 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Nov 30.1 °C 36 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Nov 30.0 °C 38 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Nov 30.2 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Nov 30.1 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Nov 29.9 °C 30 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Nov 29.4 °C 32 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Nov 29.5 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Nov 29.6 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Nov 29.9 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Nov 29.2 °C 29 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Nov 29.7 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Nov 29.5 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
13 Nov 28.2 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Nov 27.8 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Nov 27.1 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Nov after 27.3 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Nov after 27.3 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Nov after 27.4 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Nov after 27.5 °C 30 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Nov after 27.8 °C 31 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Nov after 28.8 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Nov after 28.7 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Nov after 27.0 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Nov after 27.0 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Nov after 28.3 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Nov after 28.7 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Nov after 28.3 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Nov after 27.6 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Nov after 26.6 °C 30 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Nov after 26.7 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Dec after 26.1 °C 44 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Oct 2016
After · 22 Nov 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 · 3,709Every 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 Barnala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 October 2016 and 15 November 2016: 19 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 39,116 hectares (391.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 6 municipalities: Barnala (11,740 ha, 14 %); Sangrur (10,677 ha, 24 %); Tapa (9,526 ha, 16 %); Sunam (4,540 ha, 8.8 %); Mansa (2,316 ha, 2.6 %); Dhuri (420 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.