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Katangsky Rayon fire, 4 August 2017 Katangsky Rayon

Out · last detection 22 Aug 2017, 20:16 UTC

The fire started on 4 August 2017 in Katangsky Rayon, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,869 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 201th largest in Irkutsk Oblast since 2016 (of 422 with a page). Number 145 in Russia in 2017, of 367.

Burnt area
5,869ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
4 Aug 2017 – 22 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
4 Aug
2017
Heat detections
828
in a single hotspot: 105 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Average daily power
197MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Aug22 Aug
22 Aug 2017

How it evolved, day by day

4 Aug 2017 · 1 MW · 1 5 Aug 2017 · 172 MW · 30 6 Aug 2017 · 341 MW · 58 7 Aug 2017 · 88 MW · 19 8 Aug 2017 · 11 MW · 1 9 Aug 2017 · 1 MW · 1 10 Aug 2017 · 4 MW · 1 11 Aug 2017 · 1 MW · 1 12 Aug 2017 · 79 MW · 38 13 Aug 2017 · 324 MW · 88 14 Aug 2017 · 316 MW · 90 15 Aug 2017 · 158 MW · 60 16 Aug 2017 · 50 MW · 28 17 Aug 2017 · 150 MW · 45 18 Aug 2017 · 631 MW · 69 19 Aug 2017 · 129 MW · 59 20 Aug 2017 · 1,130 MW · 202 21 Aug 2017 · 80 MW · 17 22 Aug 2017 · 76 MW · 20
4 Aug 8 Aug 12 Aug 16 Aug 20 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
45km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.3 mm on 24 Aug.

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 3.7% of the area of London (59 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. Katangsky Rayon where it started
    5,820 ha reached on 4 Aug
    0.0 %

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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
4 Aug 27.3 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
5 Aug 29.3 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Aug 30.4 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Aug 31.5 °C 36 % 18 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
8 Aug 31.2 °C 37 % 22 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 14
9 Aug 32.3 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Aug 27.7 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Aug 23.1 °C 53 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
12 Aug 29.3 °C 30 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
13 Aug 32.3 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Aug 32.3 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Aug 19.4 °C 48 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Aug 20.4 °C 42 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 Aug 20.4 °C 38 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
18 Aug 18.8 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Aug 23.0 °C 34 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Aug 23.8 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
21 Aug 19.7 °C 44 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
22 Aug 19.1 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Aug after 14.7 °C 52 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
24 Aug after 11.8 °C 71 % 29 km/h 4.3 mm Very low 1

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 22.8, a minimum humidity of 41% and 5 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 26.

FWI at the start 22.8
Minimum humidity 41 %
Days without rain 5
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Katangsky Rayon fire, July 2019
10,726 ha 28 days FWI 22.8 Min. humidity 41 % 155 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 12 Aug.

What happened to them

22 days
median duration
6,366 ha
median area
42 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 26 of 26 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (5,869 ha against a median of 6,366 ha) and lasted 19 days, against 22 days.

All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 3.2 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

4.3 mmfirst rain
24 Aug2 days after it ended
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 22 Aug, and on 24 Aug 4.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 26 of 26, with a median of 3.2 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 · 28 Jul 2017
After · 29 Aug 2017

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 · 828Every 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 Katangsky Rayon fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 August 2017 to 22 August 2017 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 August 2017 to 22 August 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,869 hectares (58.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Katangsky Rayon (5,820 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 45 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 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: 26. Their median duration was 22 days and their median area 6,366 ha; 42 % went past 10,000 ha. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 3.2 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: 5 August 2017 → 4 August 2017.

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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 5 August 2017 to 22 August 2017. 828 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.