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Dharni fire, April 2017 Chikhaldara, Dharni

Out · last detection 20 Apr 2017, 20:53 UTC

The fire started on 17 April 2017 in Dharni, India, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,320 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Mahārāshtra since 2016 (of 17 with a page). Number 23 in India in 2017, of 27.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.7 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
5,320ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
17 Apr 2017 – 20 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
17 Apr
2017
Heat detections
168
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
764MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Apr20 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

17181920

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
46km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,983 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Chikhaldara
    3,810 ha reached on 17 Apr
    1.6 %
  2. Dharni where it started
    1,543 ha reached on 18 Apr
    1.0 %

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)
12 Apr 38.7 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Apr 40.0 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Apr 40.8 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Apr 40.7 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Apr 40.8 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Apr 41.0 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Apr 41.0 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
19 Apr 40.3 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
20 Apr 40.0 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
21 Apr after 39.6 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
22 Apr after 37.8 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Apr after 36.1 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Apr after 35.6 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Apr after 35.7 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Apr after 36.9 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Apr after 38.0 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Apr after 38.8 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Apr after 38.0 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Apr after 36.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 May after 37.8 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 May after 39.5 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 May after 40.1 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 May after 39.2 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 May after 40.4 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 May after 40.5 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 May after 40.1 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Apr 2017
After · 27 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 · 168Every 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 Dharni fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 April 2017 and 20 April 2017: 4 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 5,320 hectares (53.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chikhaldara (3,810 ha, 1.6 %); Dharni (1,543 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, 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.