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HANGU fire, October 2022 HANGU, TALL

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2022, 21:16 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2022 in HANGU, Pakistan, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,147 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 35th largest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2016 (of 46 with a page). Number 12 in Pakistan in 2022, of 12.

Burnt area
1,147ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
1day
15 Oct 2022 – 15 Oct 2022
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
15 Oct
2022
Heat detections
30
in a single hotspot: 60 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
419MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct15 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

15

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
24km/h · peak gust
45%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 340 ha in 2016, 476 ha in 2019, 369 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 891 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. HANGU where it started
    605 ha reached on 15 Oct
    0.9 %
  2. TALL
    545 ha reached on 15 Oct
    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)
15 Oct 26.2 °C 45 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
16 Oct after 26.5 °C 44 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
17 Oct after 25.8 °C 46 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 14
18 Oct after 25.2 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 15
19 Oct after 24.5 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 17
20 Oct after 22.5 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
21 Oct after 24.4 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
22 Oct after 24.8 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
23 Oct after 24.9 °C 43 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
24 Oct after 23.7 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
25 Oct after 25.2 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Oct 2022
After · 22 Oct 2022

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 16 October 2022 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak32 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1046 µg/m³
Optical depth0.52
131415161718
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 · 30Every 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 Pakistan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the HANGU fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 October 2022 and 15 October 2022: 1 day 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 1,147 hectares (11.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: HANGU (605 ha, 0.9 %); TALL (545 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.2 °C, humidity dropped to 45 % and gusts hit 24 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 13, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Pakistan (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: 1122 · 16

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 1122 · 16.

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.