Skip to content
worldfires
RU · Russia · –

Gorny Ulus fire, 9 August 2024 Gorny Ulus

Out · last detection 20 Aug 2024, 04:42 UTC

The fire started on 9 August 2024 in Gorny Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,570 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1159th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1347 with a page). Number 470 in Russia in 2024, of 557.

Burnt area
3,570ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
9 Aug 2024 – 20 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
9 Aug
2024
Heat detections
402
in a single hotspot: 155 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
398MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Aug20 Aug
20 Aug 2024

How it evolved, day by day

9 Aug 2024 · 25 MW · 11 10 Aug 2024 · 49 MW · 12 11 Aug 2024 · 42 MW · 12 12 Aug 2024 · 64 MW · 15 14 Aug 2024 · 26 MW · 5 15 Aug 2024 · 28 MW · 12 16 Aug 2024 · 290 MW · 42 17 Aug 2024 · 1,390 MW · 125 18 Aug 2024 · 727 MW · 109 19 Aug 2024 · 1,685 MW · 51 20 Aug 2024 · 50 MW · 8
9 Aug 12 Aug 16 Aug 19 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
50km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.4 mm on 21 Aug.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.3% of the area of London (36 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
    3,533 ha reached on 9 Aug
    0.1 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
3 Aug 23.1 °C 27 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
4 Aug 25.3 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
5 Aug 16.8 °C 60 % 32 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 5
6 Aug 23.3 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
7 Aug 21.7 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
8 Aug 23.4 °C 35 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
9 Aug 27.7 °C 27 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
10 Aug 28.5 °C 31 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
11 Aug 26.0 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
12 Aug 25.7 °C 47 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
13 Aug 23.2 °C 66 % 50 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 5
14 Aug 19.6 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
15 Aug 17.9 °C 45 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
16 Aug 20.8 °C 28 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
17 Aug 22.2 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
18 Aug 23.7 °C 27 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
19 Aug 24.3 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 16
20 Aug 24.6 °C 48 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
21 Aug after 19.2 °C 62 % 19 km/h 4.4 mm Very low 1

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 13.0, a minimum humidity of 27% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 48.

FWI at the start 13.0
Minimum humidity 27 %
Days without rain 3
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Olyokminsky Ulus fire, July 2021
3,146 ha 8 days FWI 12.2 Min. humidity 28 % 91 km away, in 2021

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.5 mm on 9 Jul.

What happened to them

13 days
median duration
8,488 ha
median area
44 %
went past 10,000 ha
6.1 mm
rain at the end (median; 48 of 48 had it)

It stayed below its twins: 3,570 ha against a median of 8,488 ha. It lasted 12 days, against 13 days.

All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 6.1 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

4.4 mmfirst rain
21 Augthe day after it ended
50km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 20 Aug, and on 21 Aug 4.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 48 of 48, with a median of 6.1 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 · 2 Aug 2024
After · 27 Aug 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 19 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 514 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 194: 13 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak514 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM10734 µg/m³
Optical depth3.59
7 Aug11 Aug15 Aug19 Aug23 Aug
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)

Detections table · 402Every 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 9 August 2024 and 20 August 2024: 12 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 3,570 hectares (35.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Gorny Ulus (3,533 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.5 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 50 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: 48. Their median duration was 13 days and their median area 8,488 ha; 44 % went past 10,000 ha. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 6.1 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.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 402 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 2025, 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.