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Chitvel fire, April 2023 Chitvel, Dakkili, Kodur

Out · last measured on 20 Apr 2023

The fire started on 10 April 2023 in Chitvel, India, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,570 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Andhra Pradesh since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 5 in India in 2023, of 23.

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
10,570ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
10 Apr 2023 – 20 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
4
subdistricts
Started on
10 Apr
2023
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

40°high
37km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 22 Apr.

This area had burned before

65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 788 ha in 2016, 3,243 ha in 2017, 1,359 ha in 2019, 4,076 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,876 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chitvel where it started
    5,920 ha
    17 %
  2. Dakkili
    3,387 ha
    9.3 %
  3. Kodur
    1,142 ha
    1.7 %
  4. Rapur
    183 ha
    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)
10 Apr 35.7 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Apr 36.8 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Apr 38.4 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Apr 39.4 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Apr 39.7 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Apr 38.9 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Apr 39.4 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Apr 39.3 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Apr 39.1 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Apr 39.6 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Apr 39.8 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Apr after 38.5 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.7 mm High 35
22 Apr after 36.7 °C 39 % 24 km/h 2.8 mm Moderate 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Apr 2023
After · 27 Apr 2023

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 23 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak46 µg/m³
Days over the guideline15 days
PM1068 µg/m³
Optical depth1.57
891011121314151617181920212223
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chitvel fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 April 2023 and 20 April 2023: 11 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 10,570 hectares (105.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Chitvel (5,920 ha, 17 %); Dakkili (3,387 ha, 9.3 %); Kodur (1,142 ha, 1.7 %); Rapur (183 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 37 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 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.

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 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.