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Berau fire, September 2019 Berau

Out · last measured on 20 Sept 2019

The fire started on 1 September 2019 in Berau, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,223 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 14th largest in East Kalimantan since 2016 (of 97 with a page). Number 48 in Indonesia in 2019, of 418.

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
7,223ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
1 Sept 2019 – 20 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
1 Sept
2019
Danger at start
4
Very low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

37°high
52km/h · peak gust
34%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 21 Sept.

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 175 ha in 2017, 664 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 723 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Berau where it started
    7,273 ha
    0.3 %

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)
1 Sept 35.2 °C 48 % 26 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 4
2 Sept 36.0 °C 45 % 38 km/h 1.1 mm Low 9
3 Sept 35.9 °C 41 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 13
4 Sept 35.3 °C 45 % 28 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 13
5 Sept 36.0 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 14
6 Sept 34.7 °C 50 % 27 km/h 10.9 mm Very low 1
7 Sept 35.7 °C 47 % 28 km/h 1.8 mm Very low 4
8 Sept 36.0 °C 47 % 27 km/h 3.9 mm Very low 2
9 Sept 36.6 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm Low 10
10 Sept 36.4 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
11 Sept 35.9 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 13
12 Sept 35.3 °C 46 % 43 km/h 1.3 mm Low 10
13 Sept 34.0 °C 45 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Sept 36.0 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
15 Sept 36.5 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
16 Sept 36.5 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 Sept 35.7 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
18 Sept 36.6 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
19 Sept 36.9 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm High 22
20 Sept 36.6 °C 42 % 26 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 17
21 Sept after 35.7 °C 45 % 22 km/h 2.7 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Aug 2019
After · 27 Sept 2019

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 Indonesia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Berau fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 September 2019 and 20 September 2019: 20 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 7,223 hectares (72.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Berau (7,273 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Indonesia (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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.