Skip to content
worldfires
IN · India · →

Dolariya fire, 28 March 2022 Dolariya, Seoni-Malwa, Itarsi

Out · last measured on 7 Apr 2022

The fire started on 28 March 2022 in Dolariya, India, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,673 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in Madhya Pradesh since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 4 in India in 2022, of 28.

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
19,673ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
28 Mar 2022 – 7 Apr 2022
Municipalities hit
3
subdistricts
Started on
28 Mar
2022
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

41°high
28km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,460 ha in 2016, 7,815 ha in 2017, 7,168 ha in 2018, 8,919 ha in 2019, 12,872 ha in 2020, 13,036 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,069 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dolariya where it started
    9,765 ha
    33 %
  2. Seoni-Malwa
    6,366 ha
    5.0 %
  3. Itarsi
    3,637 ha
    3.7 %

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)
28 Mar 39.8 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Mar 39.4 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Mar 39.6 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Mar 39.9 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Apr 40.4 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Apr 40.1 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Apr 40.4 °C 16 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Apr 40.8 °C 13 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Apr 40.9 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
6 Apr 41.4 °C 14 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Apr 41.3 °C 14 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Apr after 41.6 °C 15 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Apr after 41.6 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Apr after 41.2 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Apr after 40.8 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Apr after 40.4 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Apr after 40.6 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Apr after 40.1 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Apr after 40.7 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Apr after 40.5 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Apr after 40.9 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Mar 2022
After · 14 Apr 2022

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Dolariya fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 March 2022 and 7 April 2022: 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 19,673 hectares (196.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Dolariya (9,765 ha, 33 %); Seoni-Malwa (6,366 ha, 5.0 %); Itarsi (3,637 ha, 3.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 28 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 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.