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Gidderbaha fire, October 2018 Gidderbaha, Bathinda, Jaitu

Out · last measured on 5 Nov 2018

The fire started on 22 October 2018 in Gidderbaha, India, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,161 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 33th largest in Punjab since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 12 in India in 2018, of 13.

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
5,161ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
22 Oct 2018 – 5 Nov 2018
Municipalities hit
3
subdistricts
Started on
22 Oct
2018
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
29km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 13 Nov.

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,319 ha in 2016, 1,683 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,424 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Gidderbaha where it started
    3,936 ha
    5.4 %
  2. Bathinda
    1,223 ha
    0.8 %
  3. Jaitu
    24 ha
    0.1 %

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 32.3 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Oct 32.0 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Oct 32.3 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Oct 32.0 °C 26 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Oct 31.7 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Oct 32.1 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Oct 32.0 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Oct 32.0 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Oct 31.5 °C 30 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Oct 31.1 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
1 Nov 31.0 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Nov 32.6 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Nov 30.1 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Nov 26.8 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Nov 27.3 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Nov after 28.5 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Nov after 29.5 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Nov after 29.9 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Nov after 29.2 °C 29 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Nov after 29.1 °C 33 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Nov after 29.1 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Nov after 27.9 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Nov after 28.2 °C 35 % 31 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Oct 2018
After · 12 Nov 2018

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 Gidderbaha fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 October 2018 and 5 November 2018: 15 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 5,161 hectares (51.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Gidderbaha (3,936 ha, 5.4 %); Bathinda (1,223 ha, 0.8 %); Jaitu (24 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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
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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.