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Etapalli fire, April 2017 Etapalli, Bhamragad

Out · last detection 13 Apr 2017, 07:14 UTC

The fire started on 5 April 2017 in Etapalli, India, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,653 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in Mahārāshtra since 2016 (of 17 with a page). Number 20 in India in 2017, of 27.

The power measured by the satellite is low (19.6 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
5,653ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
5 Apr 2017 – 13 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
5 Apr
2017
Heat detections
201
in a single hotspot: 20 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
809MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Apr13 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

5678910111213

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
43km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,970 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Etapalli where it started
    4,588 ha reached on 4 Apr
    2.0 %
  2. Bhamragad
    1,093 ha reached on 6 Apr
    0.8 %

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)
4 Apr 38.4 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Apr 38.8 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 41
6 Apr 39.7 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Apr 39.4 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Apr 41.0 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Apr 41.6 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Apr 41.0 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Apr 40.6 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Apr 41.5 °C 4 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Apr 41.6 °C 6 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
14 Apr after 40.9 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Apr after 40.7 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
16 Apr after 42.7 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Apr after 42.9 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Apr after 41.9 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Apr after 40.9 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Apr after 41.5 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Apr after 40.7 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Apr after 42.3 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Apr after 41.7 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Mar 2017
After · 20 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 · 201Every 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 Etapalli fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 April 2017 and 13 April 2017: 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 5,653 hectares (56.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Etapalli (4,588 ha, 2.0 %); Bhamragad (1,093 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.6 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.