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Katangsky Rayon fire, 3 July 2019 Katangsky Rayon

Out · last detection 10 Aug 2019, 19:14 UTC

The fire started on 3 July 2019 in Katangsky Rayon, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 54,007 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 7th largest in Irkutsk Oblast since 2016 (of 421 with a page). Number 13 in Russia in 2019, of 610.

Burnt area
54,007ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
39days
3 Jul 2019 – 10 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
3 Jul
2019
Heat detections
9,245
in a single hotspot: 399 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
1.9GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Jul10 Aug
10 Aug 2019

How it evolved, day by day

3 Jul 2019 · 25 MW · 11 4 Jul 2019 · 38 MW · 13 5 Jul 2019 · 2,882 MW · 129 6 Jul 2019 · 4 MW · 3 7 Jul 2019 · 15 MW · 12 8 Jul 2019 · 377 MW · 76 9 Jul 2019 · 408 MW · 159 10 Jul 2019 · 601 MW · 112 11 Jul 2019 · 503 MW · 35 12 Jul 2019 · 58 MW · 35 13 Jul 2019 · 1,579 MW · 272 14 Jul 2019 · 190 MW · 97 15 Jul 2019 · 511 MW · 70 16 Jul 2019 · 980 MW · 167 17 Jul 2019 · 806 MW · 196 18 Jul 2019 · 4,848 MW · 530 19 Jul 2019 · 1,405 MW · 155 20 Jul 2019 · 3,284 MW · 372 21 Jul 2019 · 2,374 MW · 474 22 Jul 2019 · 9,587 MW · 750 23 Jul 2019 · 1,834 MW · 327 24 Jul 2019 · 825 MW · 279 25 Jul 2019 · 2,242 MW · 392 26 Jul 2019 · 2,560 MW · 401 27 Jul 2019 · 1,196 MW · 224 28 Jul 2019 · 3,264 MW · 341 29 Jul 2019 · 1,089 MW · 241 30 Jul 2019 · 1,908 MW · 399 31 Jul 2019 · 1,255 MW · 249 2 Aug 2019 · 10 MW · 6 3 Aug 2019 · 437 MW · 71 4 Aug 2019 · 2,552 MW · 289 5 Aug 2019 · 5,885 MW · 717 6 Aug 2019 · 14,143 MW · 849 7 Aug 2019 · 2,725 MW · 534 8 Aug 2019 · 160 MW · 74 9 Aug 2019 · 315 MW · 107 10 Aug 2019 · 232 MW · 77
3 Jul 11 Jul 19 Jul 27 Jul 6 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

31°high
58km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.3 mm on 12 Aug.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,946 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,671 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 34% of the area of London (540 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
    50,485 ha reached on 3 Jul
    0.4 %

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 area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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)
3 Jul 24.9 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Jul 24.7 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
5 Jul 26.8 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Jul 26.4 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Jul 22.3 °C 49 % 42 km/h 1.2 mm High 25
8 Jul 27.0 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
9 Jul 26.5 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
10 Jul 28.4 °C 31 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
11 Jul 28.9 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
12 Jul 21.0 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.6 mm High 24
13 Jul 25.0 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Jul 26.0 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
15 Jul 26.2 °C 36 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Jul 28.7 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Jul 30.8 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Jul 28.9 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Jul 20.4 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Jul 19.4 °C 37 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Jul 22.5 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Jul 25.1 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Jul 24.9 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Jul 26.6 °C 32 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
25 Jul 27.5 °C 40 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Jul 27.1 °C 42 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 Jul 27.2 °C 42 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Jul 25.3 °C 49 % 43 km/h 0.6 mm High 31
29 Jul 22.9 °C 50 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
30 Jul 25.1 °C 36 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
31 Jul 25.2 °C 36 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Aug 21.3 °C 74 % 30 km/h 5.0 mm Very low 5
2 Aug 26.4 °C 45 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
3 Aug 25.6 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
4 Aug 22.6 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
5 Aug 22.8 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Aug 27.2 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Aug 26.6 °C 39 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
8 Aug 24.9 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
9 Aug 26.2 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
10 Aug 25.5 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
11 Aug after 18.5 °C 71 % 30 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 13
12 Aug after 15.3 °C 61 % 59 km/h 5.3 mm Low 6

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 26.5, a minimum humidity of 28% and 10 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 23.

FWI at the start 26.5
Minimum humidity 28 %
Days without rain 10
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Katangsky Rayon fire, June 2018
3,796 ha 8 days FWI 26.3 Min. humidity 28 % 82 km away, in 2018

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 12.0 mm on 6 Jul.

What happened to them

17 days
median duration
5,308 ha
median area
26 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 23 of 23 had it)

It was 10.2 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 39 days, against 17 days.

None of its 23 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 3.7 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

5.3 mmfirst rain
12 Aug2 days after it ended
58km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 10 Aug, and on 12 Aug 5.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 23 of 23, with a median of 3.7 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 · 26 Jun 2019
After · 17 Aug 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.

Detections table · 9,245Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 July 2019 and 10 August 2019: 39 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 54,007 hectares (540.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Katangsky Rayon (50,485 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.8 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very 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: 23. Their median duration was 17 days and their median area 5,308 ha; 26 % went past 10,000 ha. None of its 23 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 3.7 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 9,245 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.