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Kapuas fire, 28 August 2019 Kapuas

Out · last measured on 29 Sept 2019

The fire started on 28 August 2019 in Kapuas, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,739 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 17th largest in Central Kalimantan since 2016 (of 310 with a page). Number 8 in Indonesia in 2019, of 418.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
21,739ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
33days
28 Aug 2019 – 29 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
28 Aug
2019
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

37°high
38km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 30 Sept.

This area had burned before

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 353 ha in 2016, 1,578 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Kapuas where it started
    21,892 ha
    1.3 %

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)
28 Aug 35.1 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
29 Aug 36.0 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Aug 35.7 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Aug 36.0 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Sept 35.8 °C 38 % 29 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 20
2 Sept 37.0 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Sept 36.0 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Sept 36.2 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Sept 35.6 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Sept 35.0 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Sept 35.5 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Sept 35.1 °C 41 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Sept 36.4 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Sept 36.6 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Sept 36.1 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Sept 34.8 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Sept 35.0 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Sept 35.2 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Sept 34.7 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Sept 34.5 °C 44 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Sept 34.3 °C 47 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Sept 35.8 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Sept 35.7 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Sept 34.2 °C 46 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Sept 35.0 °C 48 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Sept 35.5 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Sept 36.6 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Sept 36.0 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Sept 35.3 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.9 mm High 24
26 Sept 36.3 °C 43 % 30 km/h 4.6 mm Low 10
27 Sept 34.4 °C 48 % 31 km/h 10.2 mm Very low 4
28 Sept 34.2 °C 46 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
29 Sept 35.0 °C 47 % 23 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
30 Sept after 34.5 °C 42 % 31 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Aug 2019
After · 6 Oct 2019

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Indonesia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kapuas fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 August 2019 and 29 September 2019: 33 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 21,739 hectares (217.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kapuas (21,892 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Indonesia (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

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
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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.

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 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.