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Barnala fire, 25 October 2016 Barnala, Jagraon, Nihal Singhwala

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

The fire started on 25 October 2016 in Barnala, India, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 108,463 hectares from heat detections, spread across 9 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the largest fire in Punjab since 2016 (of 33 with a page). The largest in India in 2016, of 47.

Burnt area
108,463ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
25 Oct 2016 – 15 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
9
subdistricts
Started on
25 Oct
2016
Heat detections
10,987
in a single hotspot: 108 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
85.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Oct15 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2526272829303112345678910111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
31km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 46 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
    33,339 ha reached on 18 Oct
    41 %
  2. Jagraon
    19,080 ha reached on 18 Oct
    23 %
  3. Nihal Singhwala
    15,768 ha reached on 18 Oct
    35 %
  4. Raikot
    12,043 ha reached on 18 Oct
    26 %
  5. Moga
    11,554 ha reached on 18 Oct
    18 %
  6. Tapa
    9,763 ha reached on 21 Oct
    16 %
  7. Dhuri
    5,805 ha reached on 21 Oct
    9.8 %
  8. Bagha Purana
    752 ha reached on 22 Oct
    1.3 %
  9. Ahmedgarh
    724 ha reached on 20 Oct
    3.8 %

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)
18 Oct 34.2 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Oct 34.8 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Oct 33.6 °C 26 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Oct 33.7 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Oct 33.3 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Oct 33.1 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Oct 32.8 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Oct 32.5 °C 27 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Oct 32.3 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Oct 32.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Oct 31.7 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Oct 31.4 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Oct 30.7 °C 29 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Oct 30.2 °C 32 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Nov 30.2 °C 36 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Nov 29.9 °C 39 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Nov 30.1 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Nov 29.7 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.5 mm High 33
5 Nov 29.9 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Nov 29.4 °C 31 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Nov 29.5 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Nov 29.6 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Nov 29.8 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Nov 29.1 °C 30 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Nov 29.4 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Nov 28.2 °C 32 % 29 km/h 1.0 mm High 26
13 Nov 28.1 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Nov 27.7 °C 26 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Nov 27.0 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Nov after 27.2 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Nov after 27.2 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Nov after 27.3 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Nov after 27.4 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Nov after 27.5 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Nov after 28.7 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Nov after 28.5 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Nov after 26.9 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Nov after 26.7 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Nov after 28.1 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Nov after 28.5 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Nov after 27.8 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Nov after 27.3 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Nov after 26.4 °C 30 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Nov after 26.5 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Dec after 25.8 °C 44 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
2 Dec after 25.8 °C 32 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 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 · 10,987Every 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 25 October 2016 and 15 November 2016: 22 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 108,463 hectares (1,084.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 9 municipalities: Barnala (33,339 ha, 41 %); Jagraon (19,080 ha, 23 %); Nihal Singhwala (15,768 ha, 35 %); Raikot (12,043 ha, 26 %); Moga (11,554 ha, 18 %); Tapa (9,763 ha, 16 %); Dhuri (5,805 ha, 9.8 %); Bagha Purana (752 ha, 1.3 %); Ahmedgarh (724 ha, 3.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.

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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.