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Dangisharan fire, March 2021 Babai, Dangisharan

Out · last detection 28 Mar 2021, 19:48 UTC

The fire started on 20 March 2021 in Dangisharan, Nepal, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,378 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 36th largest in Lumbini since 2016 (of 49 with a page). Number 25 in Nepal in 2021, of 38.

Burnt area
2,378ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
20 Mar 2021 – 28 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
20 Mar
2021
Heat detections
118
in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
341MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Mar 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Mar28 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

202122232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
47km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 42 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,179 ha in 2016, 1,698 ha in 2017, 1,265 ha in 2018, 2,038 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,378 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Babai
    1,915 ha reached on 21 Mar
    9.5 %
  2. Dangisharan where it started
    472 ha reached on 20 Mar
    4.2 %

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)
20 Mar 28.0 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
21 Mar 28.8 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Mar 30.2 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Mar 30.9 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Mar 28.2 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Mar 28.0 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Mar 27.8 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Mar 27.9 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Mar 28.6 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Mar after 29.7 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Mar after 31.0 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Mar after 28.0 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Apr after 26.6 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Apr after 28.0 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Apr after 29.1 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Apr after 29.3 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Apr after 29.4 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Apr after 29.9 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Apr after 31.2 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm High 34
8 Apr after 30.9 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Apr after 30.7 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Apr after 31.3 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Apr after 31.5 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Apr after 31.8 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Apr after 32.0 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Apr after 33.1 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Mar 2021
After · 4 Apr 2021

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 · 118Every 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 Dangisharan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 March 2021 and 28 March 2021: 9 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 2,378 hectares (23.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Babai (1,915 ha, 9.5 %); Dangisharan (472 ha, 4.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.