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Dolariya fire, April 2023 Dolariya, Hoshangabad, Itarsi

Out · last measured on 6 Apr 2023

The fire started on 1 April 2023 in Dolariya, India, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,332 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Madhya Pradesh since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 2 in India in 2023, of 23.

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
15,332ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
1 Apr 2023 – 6 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
4
subdistricts
Started on
1 Apr
2023
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

36°high
33km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,842 ha in 2016, 8,042 ha in 2017, 7,732 ha in 2018, 8,191 ha in 2019, 12,562 ha in 2020, 11,867 ha in 2021, 9,156 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,107 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dolariya where it started
    9,196 ha
    31 %
  2. Hoshangabad
    4,081 ha
    19 %
  3. Itarsi
    1,450 ha
    1.5 %
  4. Rehti
    678 ha
    0.9 %

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)
1 Apr 32.0 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Apr 34.4 °C 27 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Apr 35.7 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Apr 35.6 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Apr 36.4 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Apr 36.1 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Apr after 36.8 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Apr after 33.9 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
9 Apr after 35.8 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Apr after 36.6 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
11 Apr after 38.3 °C 23 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Apr after 40.0 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Apr after 39.4 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
14 Apr after 38.9 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Apr after 35.7 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Apr after 38.8 °C 23 % 25 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 · 25 Mar 2023
After · 13 Apr 2023

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

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 4 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 71 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 39: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak71 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM10107 µg/m³
Optical depth0.74
3031123456789
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Dolariya fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 April 2023 and 6 April 2023: 6 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 15,332 hectares (153.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Dolariya (9,196 ha, 31 %); Hoshangabad (4,081 ha, 19 %); Itarsi (1,450 ha, 1.5 %); Rehti (678 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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

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
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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.