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Donka fire, March 2024 Donka, Umsning

Out · last measured on 17 Mar 2024

The fire started on 9 March 2024 in Donka, India, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,780 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Assam since 2016 (of 12 with a page). Number 2 in India in 2024, of 7.

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
10,780ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
9 Mar 2024 – 17 Mar 2024
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
9 Mar
2024
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

30°high
44km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.0 mm on 20 Mar.

This area had burned before

95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,841 ha in 2016, 7,738 ha in 2017, 5,409 ha in 2018, 6,835 ha in 2019, 6,418 ha in 2020, 6,082 ha in 2021, 8,868 ha in 2022, 4,318 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,211 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Donka where it started
    6,727 ha
    2.2 %
  2. Umsning
    4,101 ha
    4.9 %

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)
9 Mar 26.6 °C 27 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
10 Mar 27.2 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
11 Mar 29.3 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
12 Mar 28.2 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
13 Mar 29.2 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
14 Mar 27.7 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Mar 28.4 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
16 Mar 30.1 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
17 Mar 30.3 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
18 Mar after 30.1 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
19 Mar after 28.5 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Mar after 20.2 °C 57 % 28 km/h 9.0 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Mar 2024
After · 24 Mar 2024

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 20 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 109 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 72: 4.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak109 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM10156 µg/m³
Optical depth1.81
7891011121314151617181920
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 Donka fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 March 2024 and 17 March 2024: 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 10,780 hectares (107.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Donka (6,727 ha, 2.2 %); Umsning (4,101 ha, 4.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class 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
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.