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Bauntovsky Rayon fire, 16 May 2025 Bauntovsky Rayon

Out · last detection 29 May 2025, 17:04 UTC

The fire started on 16 May 2025 in Bauntovsky Rayon, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 26,153 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 7th largest in Buryatia since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 20 in Russia in 2025, of 238.

Burnt area
26,153ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
16 May 2025 – 29 May 2025
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 May
2025
Heat detections
1,507
in a single hotspot: 903 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
4.4GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 May29 May
29 May 2025

How it evolved, day by day

16 May 2025 · 20 MW · 2 19 May 2025 · 12 MW · 5 22 May 2025 · 293 MW · 33 23 May 2025 · 254 MW · 60 24 May 2025 · 60 MW · 25 25 May 2025 · 4,874 MW · 272 26 May 2025 · 15,427 MW · 494 27 May 2025 · 20,420 MW · 403 28 May 2025 · 1,110 MW · 107 29 May 2025 · 1,259 MW · 106
16 May 22 May 24 May 27 May

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
48km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 11.4 mm on 30 May.

This area had burned before

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,194 ha in 2016, 260 ha in 2024.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 17% of the area of London (262 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Bauntovsky Rayon where it started
    26,241 ha reached on 16 May
    0.4 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
16 May 11.1 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 13
17 May 10.6 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.9 mm Low 7
18 May 8.3 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 11
19 May 14.1 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
20 May 13.5 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
21 May 13.8 °C 29 % 31 km/h 1.1 mm Low 6
22 May 19.2 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
23 May 22.8 °C 26 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
24 May 23.1 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 21
25 May 27.0 °C 16 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
26 May 29.2 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 May 29.4 °C 14 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 May 28.5 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.7 mm High 25
29 May 17.7 °C 23 % 46 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 16
30 May after 14.9 °C 31 % 42 km/h 11.4 mm Very low 1

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 12.8, a minimum humidity of 27% and 16 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 30.

FWI at the start 12.8
Minimum humidity 27 %
Days without rain 16
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Bauntovsky Rayon fire, June 2017
3,821 ha 16 days FWI 12.9 Min. humidity 27 % 65 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 17.5 mm on 8 Jul.

What happened to them

12 days
median duration
4,384 ha
median area
13 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 29 of 30 had it)

It was 6.0 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 14 days, against 12 days.

Only 2 of its 30 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 30, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.0 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

11.4 mmfirst rain
30 Maythe day after it ended
48km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 29 May, and on 30 May 11.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 29 of 30, with a median of 3.0 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 May 2025
After · 5 Jun 2025

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 28 May 2025 the air beside the fire reached 449 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 224: 15 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak449 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10494 µg/m³
Optical depth5.42
17 May21 May25 May29 May
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 1,507Every 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 Russia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bauntovsky Rayon fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 May 2025 to 29 May 2025 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 May 2025 to 29 May 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 26,153 hectares (261.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bauntovsky Rayon (26,241 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Russia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 30. Their median duration was 12 days and their median area 4,384 ha; 13 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 2 of its 30 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 30, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.0 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 19 May 2025 → 16 May 2025.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 May 2025 to 29 May 2025. 1,507 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 ADM2 (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.