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Katangsky Rayon fire, May 2021 Katangsky Rayon

Out · last detection 6 Jul 2021, 18:24 UTC

The fire started on 17 May 2021 in Katangsky Rayon, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 51 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,744 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 97th largest in Irkutsk Oblast since 2016 (of 428 with a page). Number 147 in Russia in 2021, of 581.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Katangsky Rayon · 2021Katangsky Rayon · 2017Katangsky Rayon · 2019

Burnt area
11,744ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
51days
17 May 2021 – 6 Jul 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
17 May
2021
Heat detections
1,432
in a single hotspot: 757 MW
Danger at start
2
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
854MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 May6 Jul
6 Jul 2021

How it evolved, day by day

17 May 2021 · 11 MW · 3 20 May 2021 · 18 MW · 7 21 May 2021 · 11 MW · 4 22 May 2021 · 5 MW · 1 24 May 2021 · 6 MW · 3 26 May 2021 · 6 MW · 1 27 May 2021 · 37 MW · 13 28 May 2021 · 40 MW · 11 31 May 2021 · 27 MW · 12 1 Jun 2021 · 54 MW · 15 2 Jun 2021 · 71 MW · 27 3 Jun 2021 · 9,941 MW · 205 4 Jun 2021 · 17,124 MW · 261 5 Jun 2021 · 65 MW · 11 6 Jun 2021 · 132 MW · 35 8 Jun 2021 · 975 MW · 77 9 Jun 2021 · 2,682 MW · 195 10 Jun 2021 · 873 MW · 76 11 Jun 2021 · 126 MW · 33 12 Jun 2021 · 165 MW · 57 13 Jun 2021 · 2,464 MW · 162 14 Jun 2021 · 45 MW · 10 15 Jun 2021 · 51 MW · 9 16 Jun 2021 · 39 MW · 8 17 Jun 2021 · 61 MW · 16 18 Jun 2021 · 117 MW · 19 19 Jun 2021 · 27 MW · 6 20 Jun 2021 · 17 MW · 6 21 Jun 2021 · 31 MW · 6 22 Jun 2021 · 72 MW · 20 23 Jun 2021 · 70 MW · 17 24 Jun 2021 · 92 MW · 17 25 Jun 2021 · 38 MW · 14 26 Jun 2021 · 24 MW · 5 27 Jun 2021 · 23 MW · 6 28 Jun 2021 · 7 MW · 2 29 Jun 2021 · 54 MW · 11 2 Jul 2021 · 30 MW · 9 3 Jul 2021 · 29 MW · 8 4 Jul 2021 · 42 MW · 9 5 Jul 2021 · 58 MW · 11 6 Jul 2021 · 94 MW · 14
17 May 27 May 4 Jun 11 Jun 17 Jun 23 Jun 29 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

31°high
59km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 8 Jul.

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 7.4% of the area of London (117 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
    11,243 ha reached on 17 May
    0.1 %

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 area0.15 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.15 hectares of 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)
17 May 3.0 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
18 May 4.7 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
19 May 1.9 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
20 May 6.2 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
21 May 11.1 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
22 May 11.9 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm Low 8
23 May 13.6 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm Low 8
24 May 15.7 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
25 May 16.3 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
26 May 11.0 °C 33 % 24 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 3
27 May 15.4 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.9 mm Very low 4
28 May 20.4 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
29 May 13.8 °C 47 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
30 May 9.0 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
31 May 19.0 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Low 9
1 Jun 24.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
2 Jun 28.4 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
3 Jun 30.1 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
4 Jun 30.6 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Jun 16.8 °C 43 % 37 km/h 1.6 mm Low 7
6 Jun 17.7 °C 24 % 48 km/h 4.0 mm Very low 4
7 Jun 15.7 °C 32 % 59 km/h 0.4 mm Low 11
8 Jun 15.5 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
9 Jun 22.8 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
10 Jun 20.7 °C 27 % 39 km/h 1.6 mm Low 10
11 Jun 15.3 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 11
12 Jun 17.2 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
13 Jun 22.5 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 Jun 21.1 °C 33 % 35 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 12
15 Jun 19.9 °C 45 % 25 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 3
16 Jun 20.9 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.9 mm Low 6
17 Jun 23.3 °C 41 % 22 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 5
18 Jun 26.1 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
19 Jun 23.2 °C 43 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
20 Jun 26.8 °C 34 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
21 Jun 26.9 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 13
22 Jun 26.2 °C 47 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
23 Jun 27.2 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
24 Jun 31.1 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Jun 22.4 °C 52 % 34 km/h 5.3 mm Very low 3
26 Jun 27.0 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
27 Jun 22.5 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 15
28 Jun 23.2 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
29 Jun 23.8 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
30 Jun 22.0 °C 44 % 22 km/h 0.9 mm Low 11
1 Jul 21.9 °C 52 % 26 km/h 2.8 mm Very low 3
2 Jul 20.3 °C 77 % 25 km/h 14.9 mm Very low 0
3 Jul 23.7 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
4 Jul 23.8 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.8 mm Low 6
5 Jul 26.2 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
6 Jul 31.4 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
7 Jul after 33.1 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
8 Jul after 26.0 °C 50 % 51 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 May 2021
After · 13 Jul 2021

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 · 1,432Every 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 17 May 2021 to 6 July 2021 (51 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 May 2021 to 29 June 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,744 hectares (117.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Katangsky Rayon (11,243 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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. Last day with fire: 29 June 2021 → 6 July 2021.
  2. Start date: 24 May 2021 → 17 May 2021.

RSS Changes to this page

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 24 May 2021 to 29 June 2021. 1,432 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.