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Birendranagar fire, April 2016 Birendranagar, Bheriganga, Barahtal

Out · last detection 16 Apr 2016, 07:06 UTC

The fire started on 8 April 2016 in Birendranagar, Nepal, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,490 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 22th largest in Karnali since 2016 (of 39 with a page). Number 28 in Nepal in 2016, of 47.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.3 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
2,490ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
8 Apr 2016 – 15 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
8 Apr
2016
Heat detections
98
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
352MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Apr15 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

8910111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
54km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 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. Birendranagar where it started
    2,027 ha reached on 8 Apr
    8.2 %
  2. Bheriganga
    313 ha reached on 11 Apr
    1.2 %
  3. Barahtal
    159 ha reached on 9 Apr
    0.4 %

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)
4 Apr 32.3 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
5 Apr 34.6 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Apr 32.8 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.7 mm High 28
7 Apr 31.8 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
8 Apr 33.5 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Apr 34.3 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Apr 35.6 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Apr 35.7 °C 17 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Apr 31.9 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
13 Apr 33.0 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Apr 33.8 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Apr 35.0 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Apr after 34.3 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Apr after 34.0 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Apr after 32.6 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
19 Apr after 34.6 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Apr after 36.8 °C 19 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Apr after 35.6 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Apr after 36.1 °C 20 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Apr after 34.8 °C 16 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Apr after 33.5 °C 14 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 Apr after 34.5 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Apr after 35.5 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Apr after 36.1 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Apr after 36.1 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Apr after 36.2 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Apr after 35.4 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 May after 35.6 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Apr 2016
After · 22 Apr 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 · 98Every 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 Birendranagar fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 April 2016 and 15 April 2016: 8 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 2,490 hectares (24.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Birendranagar (2,027 ha, 8.2 %); Bheriganga (313 ha, 1.2 %); Barahtal (159 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.

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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 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.