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Jorayal fire, April 2016 Jorayal, Badikedar

Out · last detection 30 Apr 2016, 20:08 UTC

The fire started on 20 April 2016 in Jorayal, Nepal, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,215 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Sudurpaschim since 2016 (of 35 with a page). Number 11 in Nepal in 2016, of 47.

Burnt area
5,215ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
20 Apr 2016 – 29 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
20 Apr
2016
Heat detections
302
in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start
21
High · FWI index
Energy released
959MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Apr29 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
54km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 18.3 mm on 4 May.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Jorayal where it started
    3,876 ha reached on 20 Apr
    9.2 %
  2. Badikedar
    1,356 ha reached on 20 Apr
    4.1 %

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)
13 Apr 27.9 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
14 Apr 27.9 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
15 Apr 29.5 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Apr 28.6 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
17 Apr 28.4 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 15
18 Apr 27.5 °C 38 % 38 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 4
19 Apr 28.7 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
20 Apr 31.3 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 Apr 30.4 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Apr 30.6 °C 21 % 54 km/h 1.0 mm High 24
23 Apr 28.6 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Apr 27.4 °C 19 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Apr 29.6 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Apr 30.3 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
27 Apr 30.7 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
28 Apr 30.5 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Apr 30.4 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Apr after 29.3 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
1 May after 31.0 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 May after 29.6 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 May after 26.8 °C 49 % 29 km/h 10.6 mm Very low 2
4 May after 24.9 °C 51 % 36 km/h 18.3 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Apr 2016
After · 6 May 2016

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 · 302Every 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 Nepal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Jorayal fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 April 2016 and 29 April 2016: 10 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 5,215 hectares (52.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Jorayal (3,876 ha, 9.2 %); Badikedar (1,356 ha, 4.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Nepal (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: 101

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 101.

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 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License). 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.