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Khiloksky District fire, 20 June 2025 Khiloksky District, Kizhinginsky Rayon

Out · last detection 28 Jun 2025, 17:43 UTC

The fire started on 20 June 2025 in Khiloksky District, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,507 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 303th largest in Zabaykalsky Krai since 2016 (of 465 with a page). Number 151 in Russia in 2025, of 238.

Burnt area
4,507ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
20 Jun 2025 – 28 Jun 2025
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
20 Jun
2025
Heat detections
364
in a single hotspot: 187 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Average daily power
498MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jun28 Jun
28 Jun 2025

How it evolved, day by day

20 Jun 2025 · 2 MW · 1 21 Jun 2025 · 90 MW · 12 22 Jun 2025 · 426 MW · 33 23 Jun 2025 · 218 MW · 37 24 Jun 2025 · 555 MW · 63 25 Jun 2025 · 2,456 MW · 57 26 Jun 2025 · 456 MW · 57 27 Jun 2025 · 268 MW · 97 28 Jun 2025 · 8 MW · 7
20 Jun 22 Jun 25 Jun 28 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

32°high
52km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.6 mm on 30 Jun.

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 2.8% of the area of London (45 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. Khiloksky District where it started
    3,778 ha reached on 20 Jun
    0.2 %
  2. 763 ha reached on 25 Jun
    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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
20 Jun 27.1 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Jun 30.6 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Jun 32.1 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Jun 30.3 °C 21 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
24 Jun 29.1 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Jun 32.0 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 45
26 Jun 32.2 °C 21 % 41 km/h 1.4 mm Very high 41
27 Jun 27.9 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
28 Jun 24.7 °C 31 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Jun after 22.8 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Jun after 21.2 °C 44 % 58 km/h 8.6 mm Moderate 13

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 29.1, a minimum humidity of 20% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.

FWI at the start 29.1
Minimum humidity 20 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Khiloksky District fire, May 2025
7,527 ha 8 days FWI 27.5 Min. humidity 20 % 84 km away, in 2025

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.0 mm on 1 Jun.

What happened to them

8 days
median duration
4,680 ha
median area
16 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 17 of 19 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (4,507 ha against a median of 4,680 ha) and lasted 9 days, against 8 days.

In 2 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.0 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

8.6 mmfirst rain
30 Jun2 days after it ended
52km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 28 Jun, and on 30 Jun 8.6 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 17 of 19, with a median of 2.0 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 · 13 Jun 2025
After · 5 Jul 2025

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

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 1 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 378 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 201: 13 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak378 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10383 µg/m³
Optical depth2.77
18 Jun21 Jun24 Jun27 Jun30 Jun
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 364Every 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 Khiloksky District fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 June 2025 and 28 June 2025: 9 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 4,507 hectares (45.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Khiloksky District (3,778 ha, 0.2 %); Kizhinginsky Rayon (763 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 52 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: 19. Their median duration was 8 days and their median area 4,680 ha; 16 % went past 10,000 ha. In 2 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.0 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. 364 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 2025, 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.