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Bhandaria fire, March 2017 Bhandaria, Samri(kusmi)

Out · last detection 5 Apr 2017, 08:06 UTC

The fire started on 30 March 2017 in Bhandaria, India, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,165 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

Number 26 in India in 2017, of 27.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.8 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
5,165ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
30 Mar 2017 – 4 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
30 Mar
2017
Heat detections
317
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Mar4 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

303112345

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
56km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 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. Bhandaria where it started
    3,555 ha reached on 30 Mar
    5.1 %
  2. Samri(kusmi)
    1,634 ha reached on 30 Mar
    1.4 %

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)
30 Mar 38.5 °C 15 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Mar 38.1 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Apr 38.1 °C 17 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Apr 38.0 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Apr 37.5 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Apr 38.5 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Apr after 38.2 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Apr after 38.6 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Apr after 39.8 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Apr after 39.2 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Apr after 36.1 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Apr after 34.6 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Apr after 35.5 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Apr after 36.9 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Apr after 38.2 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Apr after 38.3 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Apr after 38.3 °C 14 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 Apr after 36.2 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Apr after 37.9 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 43
18 Apr after 38.9 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 49
19 Apr after 40.8 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 64
20 Apr after 38.2 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Apr after 39.8 °C 20 % 52 km/h 0.8 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Mar 2017
After · 11 Apr 2017

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 · 317Every 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 Bhandaria fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 March 2017 and 4 April 2017: 6 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 5,165 hectares (51.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bhandaria (3,555 ha, 5.1 %); Samri(kusmi) (1,634 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
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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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.