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Bhageshwar fire, April 2016 Bhageshwar, Amargadhi

Out · last detection 28 Apr 2016, 20:46 UTC

The fire started on 23 April 2016 in Bhageshwar, Nepal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,176 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 30th largest in Sudurpaschim since 2016 (of 35 with a page). Number 44 in Nepal in 2016, of 47.

The power measured by the satellite is low (10.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,176ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
23 Apr 2016 – 27 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Apr
2016
Heat detections
94
in a single hotspot: 10 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
212MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Apr27 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

232425262728

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
53km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 3 May.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Bhageshwar where it started
    2,107 ha reached on 23 Apr
    9.0 %
  2. Amargadhi
    76 ha reached on 24 Apr
    0.5 %

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)
16 Apr 31.5 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Apr 31.6 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm High 27
18 Apr 30.2 °C 32 % 39 km/h 3.3 mm Low 8
19 Apr 30.9 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
20 Apr 33.6 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Apr 33.0 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Apr 31.5 °C 23 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Apr 29.6 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
24 Apr 29.8 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Apr 31.8 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Apr 33.1 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Apr 32.9 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Apr after 32.7 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Apr after 32.5 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Apr after 31.7 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 May after 33.8 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 May after 33.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 May after 31.7 °C 33 % 35 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Apr 2016
After · 4 May 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 · 94Every 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 Nepal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bhageshwar fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 April 2016 and 27 April 2016: 5 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 2,176 hectares (21.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bhageshwar (2,107 ha, 9.0 %); Amargadhi (76 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 53 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 Nepal (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: 101

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 101.

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 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License). 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.