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Kargatsky District fire, 11 April 2022 Kargatsky District, Chulymsky District

Out · last detection 20 Apr 2022, 07:56 UTC

The fire started on 11 April 2022 in Kargatsky District, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 34,605 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Novosibirsk Oblast since 2016 (of 160 with a page). Number 12 in Russia in 2022, of 400.

Burnt area
34,605ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
11 Apr 2022 – 20 Apr 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
11 Apr
2022
Heat detections
2,018
in a single hotspot: 86 MW
Danger at start
3
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
1.4GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Apr20 Apr
20 Apr 2022

How it evolved, day by day

11 Apr 2022 · 45 MW · 6 12 Apr 2022 · 399 MW · 39 13 Apr 2022 · 1,482 MW · 186 14 Apr 2022 · 2,322 MW · 247 15 Apr 2022 · 2,923 MW · 443 16 Apr 2022 · 4,178 MW · 701 17 Apr 2022 · 717 MW · 130 18 Apr 2022 · 317 MW · 86 19 Apr 2022 · 1,552 MW · 136 20 Apr 2022 · 475 MW · 44
11 Apr 13 Apr 16 Apr 19 Apr

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

The weather it burned in

23°high
45km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.4 mm on 21 Apr.

This area had burned before

23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,306 ha in 2016, 623 ha in 2018, 3,503 ha in 2019, 1,305 ha in 2020, 2,978 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,941 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 22% of the area of London (346 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. Kargatsky District where it started
    29,155 ha reached on 11 Apr
    5.2 %
  2. 5,600 ha reached on 12 Apr
    0.6 %

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 2020
Built-up area0.56 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.56 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (GHSL 2020, 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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
11 Apr 7.3 °C 19 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
12 Apr 11.2 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
13 Apr 14.6 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
14 Apr 14.7 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
15 Apr 19.3 °C 15 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
16 Apr 23.4 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
17 Apr 18.2 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
18 Apr 9.8 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
19 Apr 8.2 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
20 Apr 8.0 °C 45 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
21 Apr after 7.5 °C 54 % 24 km/h 3.4 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 2.8, a minimum humidity of 19% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 21.

FWI at the start 2.8
Minimum humidity 19 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Kargatsky District fire, April 2020
6,475 ha 6 days FWI 1.9 Min. humidity 23 % 49 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.7 mm on 24 Apr.

What happened to them

6 days
median duration
5,788 ha
median area
24 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.1 mm
rain at the end (median; 21 of 21 had it)

It was 6.0 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 10 days, against 6 days.

Only 1 of its 21 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 3.1 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

3.4 mmfirst rain
21 Aprthe day after it ended
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 20 Apr, and on 21 Apr 3.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 21 of 21, with a median of 3.1 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 · 4 Apr 2022
After · 27 Apr 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.

Detections table · 2,018Every 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 Kargatsky District fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 April 2022 to 20 April 2022 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 April 2022 to 20 April 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 34,605 hectares (346.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kargatsky District (29,155 ha, 5.2 %); Chulymsky District (5,600 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 23.4 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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: 21. Their median duration was 6 days and their median area 5,788 ha; 24 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 1 of its 21 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 3.1 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 12 April 2022 → 11 April 2022.

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; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 12 April 2022 to 20 April 2022. 2,018 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 2020, 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.