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Качугский район fire, May 2016 Качугский район

Out · last detection 26 Jun 2016, 06:40 UTC

The fire started on 29 May 2016 in Качугский район, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,974 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 47th largest in Irkutsk Oblast since 2016 (of 421 with a page). Number 69 in Russia in 2016, of 692.

Burnt area
20,974ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
29 May 2016 – 25 Jun 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
29 May
2016
Heat detections
1,831
in a single hotspot: 215 MW
Danger at start
6
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
692MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 May25 Jun
26 Jun 2016

How it evolved, day by day

29 May 2016 · 5 MW · 4 30 May 2016 · 50 MW · 28 31 May 2016 · 124 MW · 56 1 Jun 2016 · 1,579 MW · 241 2 Jun 2016 · 4,218 MW · 190 6 Jun 2016 · 6 MW · 2 7 Jun 2016 · 1,224 MW · 48 8 Jun 2016 · 225 MW · 27 9 Jun 2016 · 493 MW · 77 10 Jun 2016 · 1,338 MW · 188 11 Jun 2016 · 1,505 MW · 94 12 Jun 2016 · 51 MW · 15 13 Jun 2016 · 325 MW · 74 14 Jun 2016 · 519 MW · 130 15 Jun 2016 · 1,025 MW · 152 16 Jun 2016 · 684 MW · 130 17 Jun 2016 · 301 MW · 100 18 Jun 2016 · 1,104 MW · 75 21 Jun 2016 · 19 MW · 3 22 Jun 2016 · 89 MW · 14 23 Jun 2016 · 277 MW · 37 24 Jun 2016 · 1,401 MW · 131 25 Jun 2016 · 40 MW · 13 26 Jun 2016 · 9 MW · 2
29 May 2 Jun 11 Jun 16 Jun 23 Jun

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
42km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 26 Jun.

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 13% of the area of London (210 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. 21,859 ha reached on 29 May
    0.7 %

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 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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)

Started with Very dry air: 5.9 % of the area in Russia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
29 May 22.5 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
30 May 20.4 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
31 May 21.7 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 13
1 Jun 27.2 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
2 Jun 29.1 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
3 Jun 17.7 °C 54 % 40 km/h 5.7 mm Moderate 14
4 Jun 16.9 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 2
5 Jun 20.4 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
6 Jun 21.7 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
7 Jun 23.8 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
8 Jun 21.6 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
9 Jun 22.4 °C 29 % 32 km/h 1.3 mm High 22
10 Jun 22.7 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
11 Jun 24.2 °C 23 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
12 Jun 21.4 °C 29 % 35 km/h 2.7 mm Moderate 19
13 Jun 23.7 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
14 Jun 26.6 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
15 Jun 21.5 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
16 Jun 24.1 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
17 Jun 25.1 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
18 Jun 25.9 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
19 Jun 16.3 °C 59 % 32 km/h 13.6 mm Very low 0
20 Jun 20.2 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
21 Jun 20.5 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
22 Jun 22.7 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
23 Jun 23.4 °C 28 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
24 Jun 26.8 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
25 Jun 28.4 °C 26 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
26 Jun after 23.6 °C 46 % 39 km/h 2.0 mm Moderate 18

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 6.4, a minimum humidity of 14% and 1 day without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 12.

FWI at the start 6.4
Minimum humidity 14 %
Days without rain 1
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Усть-Удинский район fire, May 2022
7,728 ha 7 days FWI 13.9 Min. humidity 16 % 232 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.1 mm on 21 May.

What happened to them

Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 12. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.

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

2.0 mmfirst rain
26 Junthe day after it ended
42km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 25 Jun, and on 26 Jun 2.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out.

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 · 22 May 2016
After · 2 Jul 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 · 1,831Every 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 Качугский район fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 29 May 2016 to 25 June 2016 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 May 2016 to 18 June 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 20,974 hectares (209.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Качугский район (21,859 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.1 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 42 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.

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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Area: 21,787 → 20,974 ha.
  2. Last day with fire: 18 June 2016 → 25 June 2016.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 29 May 2016 to 18 June 2016. 1,831 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 2015, 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.