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Gorny Ulus fire, 26 August 2020 Gorny Ulus, Namsky Ulus

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2020, 04:42 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2020 in Gorny Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 63,352 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 51th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1347 with a page). Number 13 in Russia in 2020, of 592.

Burnt area
63,352ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
32days
26 Aug 2020 – 26 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
26 Aug
2020
Heat detections
9,272
in a single hotspot: 436 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
2.9GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug26 Sept
26 Sept 2020

How it evolved, day by day

26 Aug 2020 · 15 MW · 5 27 Aug 2020 · 1,044 MW · 72 28 Aug 2020 · 941 MW · 131 29 Aug 2020 · 1,043 MW · 68 30 Aug 2020 · 38 MW · 15 31 Aug 2020 · 459 MW · 121 1 Sept 2020 · 66 MW · 31 2 Sept 2020 · 125 MW · 30 3 Sept 2020 · 914 MW · 172 4 Sept 2020 · 4,487 MW · 515 5 Sept 2020 · 4,197 MW · 298 6 Sept 2020 · 5,813 MW · 439 7 Sept 2020 · 865 MW · 77 8 Sept 2020 · 2,460 MW · 459 9 Sept 2020 · 1,291 MW · 357 10 Sept 2020 · 8,955 MW · 370 11 Sept 2020 · 603 MW · 71 12 Sept 2020 · 304 MW · 46 13 Sept 2020 · 569 MW · 77 14 Sept 2020 · 504 MW · 196 15 Sept 2020 · 6,452 MW · 563 16 Sept 2020 · 895 MW · 234 17 Sept 2020 · 1,639 MW · 274 18 Sept 2020 · 1,928 MW · 306 19 Sept 2020 · 5,022 MW · 486 20 Sept 2020 · 4,096 MW · 445 21 Sept 2020 · 3,849 MW · 512 22 Sept 2020 · 5,791 MW · 677 23 Sept 2020 · 3,340 MW · 498 24 Sept 2020 · 2,834 MW · 449 25 Sept 2020 · 12,800 MW · 796 26 Sept 2020 · 9,003 MW · 482
26 Aug 2 Sept 9 Sept 16 Sept 25 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

22°high
46km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.3 mm on 27 Sept.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,693 ha in 2016, 440 ha in 2017.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 40% of the area of London (634 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Gorny Ulus where it started
    55,710 ha reached on 26 Aug
    1.2 %
  2. 7,632 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.6 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
26 Aug 15.2 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
27 Aug 16.4 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
28 Aug 19.4 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
29 Aug 19.9 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Aug 16.9 °C 50 % 28 km/h 6.5 mm Very low 1
31 Aug 17.4 °C 61 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
1 Sept 18.2 °C 58 % 24 km/h 4.8 mm Very low 1
2 Sept 17.4 °C 56 % 22 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 0
3 Sept 20.8 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
4 Sept 21.5 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
5 Sept 18.5 °C 48 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
6 Sept 17.6 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
7 Sept 13.5 °C 55 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
8 Sept 14.4 °C 47 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
9 Sept 15.9 °C 40 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
10 Sept 15.9 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
11 Sept 15.0 °C 48 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 12
12 Sept 15.4 °C 58 % 20 km/h 0.1 mm Low 9
13 Sept 18.1 °C 57 % 36 km/h 4.0 mm Very low 2
14 Sept 12.3 °C 55 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
15 Sept 13.7 °C 47 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
16 Sept 12.9 °C 46 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
17 Sept 13.6 °C 35 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
18 Sept 13.7 °C 37 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
19 Sept 13.3 °C 39 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
20 Sept 13.7 °C 34 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
21 Sept 15.0 °C 28 % 10 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
22 Sept 14.6 °C 32 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
23 Sept 11.2 °C 47 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
24 Sept 12.4 °C 41 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
25 Sept 12.1 °C 51 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
26 Sept 12.6 °C 53 % 44 km/h 2.0 mm Very low 4
27 Sept after 12.4 °C 57 % 34 km/h 6.3 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 15.0, a minimum humidity of 37% and 6 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 16.

FWI at the start 15.0
Minimum humidity 37 %
Days without rain 6
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Khangalassky Ulus fire, August 2021
9,662 ha 11 days FWI 15.1 Min. humidity 37 % 163 km away, in 2021

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 10.3 mm on 17 Aug.

What happened to them

15 days
median duration
6,688 ha
median area
25 %
went past 10,000 ha
10.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 15 of 16 had it)

It was 9.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 32 days, against 15 days.

None of its 16 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 16, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 10.3 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

6.3 mmfirst rain
27 Septthe day after it ended
46km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 26 Sept, and on 27 Sept 6.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 15 of 16, with a median of 10.3 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Aug 2020
After · 3 Oct 2020

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 · 9,272Every 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 Russia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Gorny Ulus fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 August 2020 and 26 September 2020: 32 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 63,352 hectares (633.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gorny Ulus (55,710 ha, 1.2 %); Namsky Ulus (7,632 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 21.5 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Russia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 16. Their median duration was 15 days and their median area 6,688 ha; 25 % went past 10,000 ha. None of its 16 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 16, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 10.3 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 9,272 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 ADM2 (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.