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Chure fire, 20 April 2016 Jorayal, Chure, Alital

Out · last detection 3 May 2016, 20:52 UTC

The fire started on 20 April 2016 in Chure, Nepal, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,988 hectares from heat detections, spread across 7 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Sudurpaschim since 2016 (of 35 with a page). Number 2 in Nepal in 2016, of 47.

Burnt area
21,988ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
20 Apr 2016 – 3 May 2016
Municipalities hit
7
municipalities
Started on
20 Apr
2016
Heat detections
1,732
in a single hotspot: 69 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
6.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 May 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Apr3 May

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324252627282930123

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
54km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 4 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. Jorayal
    12,818 ha reached on 20 Apr
    31 %
  2. Chure where it started
    3,034 ha reached on 20 Apr
    6.2 %
  3. Alital
    2,788 ha reached on 20 Apr
    9.5 %
  4. Krishnapur
    1,636 ha reached on 21 Apr
    6.5 %
  5. Godawari
    1,395 ha reached on 23 Apr
    4.5 %
  6. Parashuram
    239 ha reached on 20 Apr
    0.6 %
  7. Ganayapdhura
    160 ha reached on 24 Apr
    1.2 %

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)
6 Apr 30.6 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.7 mm High 26
7 Apr 29.9 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Apr 31.4 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Apr 32.9 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Apr 34.3 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Apr 33.4 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Apr 30.9 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Apr 32.0 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Apr 32.0 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Apr 33.4 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Apr 32.6 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Apr 33.1 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Apr 31.9 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm High 34
19 Apr 32.8 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Apr 35.5 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Apr 34.2 °C 25 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Apr 34.6 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Apr 32.4 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Apr 31.6 °C 17 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Apr 33.6 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Apr 34.4 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Apr 34.9 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Apr 34.8 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Apr 34.6 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Apr 33.6 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 May 35.2 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 May 33.8 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 May 32.6 °C 34 % 31 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 18
4 May after 29.3 °C 41 % 35 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Apr 2016
After · 10 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 · 1,732Every 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 Chure fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 April 2016 and 3 May 2016: 14 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 21,988 hectares (219.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 7 municipalities: Jorayal (12,818 ha, 31 %); Chure (3,034 ha, 6.2 %); Alital (2,788 ha, 9.5 %); Krishnapur (1,636 ha, 6.5 %); Godawari (1,395 ha, 4.5 %); Parashuram (239 ha, 0.6 %); Ganayapdhura (160 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Extreme.
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.