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Киренский район fire, April 2019 Киренский район, Katangsky Rayon

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2019, 20:36 UTC

The fire started on 20 April 2019 in Киренский район, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 146 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,482 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

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 180th largest in Irkutsk Oblast since 2016 (of 421 with a page). Number 274 in Russia in 2019, of 610.

Burnt area
6,482ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
146days
20 Apr 2019 – 12 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
20 Apr
2019
Heat detections
1,403
in a single hotspot: 76 MW
Danger at start
0
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
118MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Apr12 Sept
12 Sept 2019

How it evolved, day by day

26 Apr 2019 · 1 MW · 1 1 Jun 2019 · 2 MW · 1 11 Jun 2019 · 1 MW · 1 17 Jun 2019 · 3 MW · 1 18 Jun 2019 · 11 MW · 3 19 Jun 2019 · 1 MW · 2 22 Jun 2019 · 3 MW · 1 23 Jun 2019 · 1 MW · 2 24 Jun 2019 · 12 MW · 5 25 Jun 2019 · 5 MW · 2 27 Jun 2019 · 2 MW · 1 28 Jun 2019 · 1 MW · 1 29 Jun 2019 · 5 MW · 1 8 Jul 2019 · 2 MW · 1 9 Jul 2019 · 3 MW · 1 10 Jul 2019 · 9 MW · 1 13 Jul 2019 · 3 MW · 1 16 Jul 2019 · 7 MW · 4 17 Jul 2019 · 109 MW · 27 18 Jul 2019 · 105 MW · 37 19 Jul 2019 · 565 MW · 65 20 Jul 2019 · 96 MW · 35 21 Jul 2019 · 334 MW · 69 22 Jul 2019 · 778 MW · 142 23 Jul 2019 · 775 MW · 105 24 Jul 2019 · 267 MW · 70 25 Jul 2019 · 187 MW · 71 26 Jul 2019 · 240 MW · 76 27 Jul 2019 · 342 MW · 83 28 Jul 2019 · 691 MW · 131 29 Jul 2019 · 520 MW · 108 30 Jul 2019 · 199 MW · 65 31 Jul 2019 · 185 MW · 61 3 Aug 2019 · 1 MW · 1 4 Aug 2019 · 102 MW · 25 5 Aug 2019 · 309 MW · 67 6 Aug 2019 · 214 MW · 48 7 Aug 2019 · 202 MW · 45 8 Aug 2019 · 32 MW · 13 9 Aug 2019 · 3 MW · 2 10 Aug 2019 · 13 MW · 9 19 Aug 2019 · 2 MW · 1 20 Aug 2019 · 8 MW · 3 21 Aug 2019 · 1 MW · 1 22 Aug 2019 · 3 MW · 1 23 Aug 2019 · 7 MW · 2 26 Aug 2019 · 2 MW · 1 30 Aug 2019 · 1 MW · 1 3 Sept 2019 · 14 MW · 2 4 Sept 2019 · 1 MW · 1 8 Sept 2019 · 1 MW · 1 9 Sept 2019 · 1 MW · 1 10 Sept 2019 · 5 MW · 2 12 Sept 2019 · 0 MW · 1
26 Apr 28 Jun 22 Jul 3 Aug 22 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

33°high
65km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 13 Sept.

This area had burned before

19% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,214 ha in 2016, 4,288 ha in 2017, 5,450 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,223 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4.1% of the area of London (65 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. 3,511 ha reached on 26 Apr
    0.1 %
  2. 2,797 ha reached on 24 Jun
    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 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)

Started with Strong wind: 10.0 % of the area in Russia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
20 Apr 0.4 °C 38 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
21 Apr 5.8 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 1
22 Apr 0.2 °C 42 % 54 km/h 1.2 mm Very low 0
23 Apr 4.2 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
24 Apr 8.8 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
25 Apr 10.9 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
26 Apr 12.0 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
27 Apr 9.5 °C 32 % 61 km/h 0.8 mm Very low 4
28 Apr 4.1 °C 33 % 39 km/h 2.3 mm Very low 0
29 Apr 3.1 °C 43 % 52 km/h 0.8 mm Very low 1
30 Apr 6.4 °C 51 % 47 km/h 4.6 mm Very low 0
1 May 23.3 °C 17 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
2 May 9.1 °C 31 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
3 May 4.8 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Low 5
4 May 12.0 °C 27 % 57 km/h 1.0 mm Low 6
5 May 14.9 °C 19 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
6 May 14.8 °C 39 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
7 May 9.0 °C 31 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
8 May 7.3 °C 60 % 44 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 1
9 May 2.7 °C 67 % 46 km/h 9.2 mm Very low 0
10 May 6.1 °C 47 % 50 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 0
11 May 8.7 °C 26 % 54 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 2
12 May 5.3 °C 73 % 55 km/h 5.0 mm Very low 0
13 May 6.3 °C 47 % 33 km/h 1.9 mm Very low 0
14 May 9.3 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
15 May 7.5 °C 49 % 33 km/h 0.9 mm Very low 1
16 May 9.1 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
17 May 9.4 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
18 May 11.0 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
19 May 13.7 °C 19 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
20 May 19.3 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
21 May 22.1 °C 29 % 37 km/h 4.5 mm Very low 2
22 May 15.6 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.3 mm Low 6
23 May 13.8 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
24 May 9.9 °C 34 % 48 km/h 0.4 mm Low 10
25 May 14.0 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.3 mm Low 10
26 May 19.4 °C 21 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
27 May 23.3 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
28 May 11.9 °C 41 % 42 km/h 2.6 mm Very low 3
29 May 13.7 °C 49 % 43 km/h 5.6 mm Very low 0
30 May 16.0 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.7 mm Very low 1
31 May 16.0 °C 37 % 39 km/h 5.4 mm Very low 1
1 Jun 19.1 °C 28 % 41 km/h 3.2 mm Very low 1
2 Jun 13.3 °C 44 % 35 km/h 6.7 mm Very low 0
3 Jun 13.2 °C 58 % 36 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 0
4 Jun 15.2 °C 46 % 23 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 1
5 Jun 13.7 °C 54 % 20 km/h 0.6 mm Very low 1
6 Jun 17.1 °C 50 % 21 km/h 0.6 mm Very low 3
7 Jun 20.0 °C 39 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
8 Jun 23.3 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
9 Jun 24.8 °C 29 % 37 km/h 1.1 mm Low 10
10 Jun 24.7 °C 40 % 28 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 3
11 Jun 17.1 °C 75 % 47 km/h 23.6 mm Very low 0
12 Jun 15.1 °C 38 % 43 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 1
13 Jun 22.9 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
14 Jun 26.8 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
15 Jun 21.0 °C 61 % 27 km/h 2.6 mm Very low 1
16 Jun 24.9 °C 55 % 21 km/h 0.6 mm Very low 2
17 Jun 29.1 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
18 Jun 18.5 °C 57 % 38 km/h 1.5 mm Very low 4
19 Jun 19.5 °C 47 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
20 Jun 23.7 °C 41 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
21 Jun 19.2 °C 57 % 16 km/h 5.7 mm Very low 0
22 Jun 23.5 °C 44 % 25 km/h 1.5 mm Very low 2
23 Jun 24.5 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
24 Jun 25.4 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
25 Jun 25.3 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
26 Jun 25.5 °C 36 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
27 Jun 28.5 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
28 Jun 29.4 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Jun 29.0 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm High 21
30 Jun 30.7 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
1 Jul 32.0 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
2 Jul 33.0 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Jul 23.4 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
4 Jul 23.5 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Jul 27.4 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Jul 27.8 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Jul 22.5 °C 53 % 38 km/h 1.3 mm Low 10
8 Jul 26.7 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
9 Jul 27.9 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
10 Jul 26.2 °C 46 % 17 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
11 Jul 29.5 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Jul 21.7 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.4 mm High 25
13 Jul 24.9 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Jul 26.4 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Jul 27.4 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Jul 29.5 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
17 Jul 30.8 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
18 Jul 28.6 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Jul 20.7 °C 34 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Jul 19.3 °C 38 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Jul 23.8 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Jul 25.1 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Jul 25.1 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Jul 27.0 °C 33 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
25 Jul 28.2 °C 38 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
26 Jul 28.0 °C 40 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 Jul 28.1 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Jul 27.2 °C 42 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Jul 25.0 °C 43 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Jul 24.8 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 Jul 25.0 °C 38 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Aug 22.5 °C 66 % 33 km/h 7.8 mm Very low 1
2 Aug 26.3 °C 45 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
3 Aug 25.5 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
4 Aug 22.1 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
5 Aug 23.2 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Aug 27.2 °C 29 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
7 Aug 26.6 °C 40 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
8 Aug 24.5 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
9 Aug 27.4 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
10 Aug 26.1 °C 45 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 21
11 Aug 21.7 °C 64 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 17
12 Aug 17.9 °C 57 % 57 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 18
13 Aug 18.7 °C 46 % 23 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 14
14 Aug 16.7 °C 58 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
15 Aug 20.8 °C 51 % 31 km/h 1.3 mm Low 9
16 Aug 19.3 °C 64 % 23 km/h 0.8 mm Low 8
17 Aug 15.8 °C 68 % 31 km/h 0.9 mm Low 8
18 Aug 15.0 °C 76 % 26 km/h 2.6 mm Very low 2
19 Aug 15.0 °C 76 % 26 km/h 2.4 mm Very low 0
20 Aug 17.7 °C 65 % 37 km/h 5.9 mm Very low 0
21 Aug 17.2 °C 69 % 26 km/h 4.3 mm Very low 0
22 Aug 17.7 °C 54 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
23 Aug 21.2 °C 50 % 21 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 4
24 Aug 24.9 °C 46 % 33 km/h 8.1 mm Very low 1
25 Aug 16.2 °C 81 % 31 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 0
26 Aug 17.2 °C 65 % 18 km/h 2.6 mm Very low 0
27 Aug 19.5 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
28 Aug 21.1 °C 41 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
29 Aug 20.5 °C 60 % 16 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 1
30 Aug 18.8 °C 47 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
31 Aug 20.0 °C 43 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
1 Sept 14.8 °C 79 % 24 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 0
2 Sept 19.7 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
3 Sept 19.0 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
4 Sept 17.8 °C 50 % 27 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 2
5 Sept 12.7 °C 76 % 31 km/h 1.8 mm Very low 1
6 Sept 11.8 °C 67 % 26 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 1
7 Sept 13.5 °C 59 % 29 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 2
8 Sept 15.6 °C 51 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 3
9 Sept 17.4 °C 35 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
10 Sept 16.5 °C 39 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
11 Sept 15.7 °C 56 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
12 Sept 11.8 °C 48 % 54 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 13
13 Sept after 4.1 °C 55 % 67 km/h 3.3 mm Very low 2

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 0.4, a minimum humidity of 38% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 30.

FWI at the start 0.4
Minimum humidity 38 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Katangsky Rayon fire, August 2021
5,496 ha 9 days FWI 3.2 Min. humidity 40 % 84 km away, in 2021

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.8 mm on 17 Aug.

What happened to them

16 days
median duration
7,717 ha
median area
47 %
went past 10,000 ha
5.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 30 of 30 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (6,482 ha against a median of 7,717 ha) and lasted 146 days, against 16 days.

All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 5.5 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

3.3 mmfirst rain
13 Septthe day after it ended
65km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 12 Sept, and on 13 Sept 3.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 30 of 30, with a median of 5.5 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 Apr 2019
After · 19 Sept 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 · 1,403Every 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 Киренский район fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 April 2019 and 12 September 2019: 146 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 6,482 hectares (64.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Киренский район (3,511 ha, 0.1 %); Katangsky Rayon (2,797 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 65 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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: 30. Their median duration was 16 days and their median area 7,717 ha; 47 % 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 5.5 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. 1,403 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.