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Barnala fire, October 2020 Barnala, Tapa, Dhuri

Out · last measured on 14 Nov 2020

The fire started on 25 October 2020 in Barnala, India, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,548 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Punjab since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 4 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
20,548ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
25 Oct 2020 – 14 Nov 2020
Municipalities hit
4
subdistricts
Started on
25 Oct
2020
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
29km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 30.1 mm on 15 Nov.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 18,600 ha in 2016, 7,477 ha in 2017, 6,188 ha in 2018, 8,677 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 19,157 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Barnala where it started
    13,087 ha
    16 %
  2. Tapa
    5,432 ha
    8.9 %
  3. Dhuri
    1,996 ha
    3.4 %
  4. Rampura Phul
    112 ha
    0.2 %

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)
25 Oct 32.9 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Oct 32.4 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Oct 31.8 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Oct 31.8 °C 24 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Oct 30.6 °C 25 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Oct 30.4 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Oct 30.5 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Nov 30.6 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Nov 30.4 °C 20 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 Nov 29.6 °C 29 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Nov 30.2 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Nov 31.1 °C 21 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Nov 30.5 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Nov 30.0 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Nov 29.4 °C 30 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Nov 29.4 °C 33 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Nov 29.1 °C 32 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Nov 28.7 °C 41 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Nov 28.1 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Nov 28.2 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Nov 26.9 °C 38 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Nov after 25.2 °C 43 % 41 km/h 30.1 mm Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Oct 2020
After · 21 Nov 2020

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 Barnala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 October 2020 and 14 November 2020: 21 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 20,548 hectares (205.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Barnala (13,087 ha, 16 %); Tapa (5,432 ha, 8.9 %); Dhuri (1,996 ha, 3.4 %); Rampura Phul (112 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.