How long did the Dhuri fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 October 2016 and 10 November 2016: 17 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 9,590 hectares (95.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dhuri (6,537 ha, 11 %); Malerkotla (3,087 ha, 6.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.

IN · India · 2016-10-25 → 2016-11-10

Dhuri fire, October 2016 Dhuri, Malerkotla

Out · last detection 11 Nov 2016, 08:28 UTC

The fire started on 25 October 2016 in Dhuri, India, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,590 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Punjab since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 15 in India in 2016, of 47.

Burnt area: 9,590ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 17days; 25 Oct 2016 – 10 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit: 2; subdistricts
Started on: 25 Oct; 2016
Heat detections: 1,070; in a single hotspot: 77 MW
Danger at start: 34; High · FWI index
Energy released: 7.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 11 Nov 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Oct10 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

252627282930311234567891011

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

35km/h · peak gust

26%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 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

Dhuri where it started

6,537 ha reached on 23 Oct

11 %
Malerkotla

3,087 ha reached on 23 Oct

6.2 %

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)
22 Oct	33.6 °C	31 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
23 Oct	33.3 °C	31 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
24 Oct	33.2 °C	27 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
25 Oct	32.7 °C	30 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
26 Oct	32.5 °C	29 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
27 Oct	32.3 °C	27 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
28 Oct	31.9 °C	28 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
29 Oct	31.5 °C	31 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
30 Oct	30.5 °C	34 %	14 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
31 Oct	30.2 °C	34 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
1 Nov	30.0 °C	40 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
2 Nov	30.0 °C	40 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
3 Nov	30.1 °C	37 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
4 Nov	30.0 °C	39 %	29 km/h	0.1 mm	High 31
5 Nov	29.4 °C	36 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
6 Nov	29.5 °C	34 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
7 Nov	29.1 °C	33 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
8 Nov	29.8 °C	27 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
9 Nov	30.5 °C	26 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
10 Nov	29.6 °C	30 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
11 Nov after	29.4 °C	32 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
12 Nov after	28.3 °C	33 %	35 km/h	1.3 mm	High 22
13 Nov after	28.2 °C	35 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
14 Nov after	28.0 °C	31 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
15 Nov after	27.2 °C	35 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
16 Nov after	27.1 °C	32 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
17 Nov after	27.5 °C	30 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
18 Nov after	27.6 °C	32 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
19 Nov after	27.7 °C	32 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
20 Nov after	28.0 °C	34 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
21 Nov after	29.2 °C	30 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
22 Nov after	29.4 °C	30 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
23 Nov after	27.0 °C	37 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
24 Nov after	27.1 °C	30 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
25 Nov after	28.0 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
26 Nov after	28.1 °C	29 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
27 Nov after	28.5 °C	25 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 18 Oct 2016

After · 17 Nov 2016

Before After

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 · 1,070Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Dhuri fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 October 2016 and 10 November 2016: 17 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 9,590 hectares (95.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dhuri (6,537 ha, 11 %); Malerkotla (3,087 ha, 6.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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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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.

Where it burned