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Kisinda fire, March 2016 Kisinda, Reamal, Jamankira

Out · last detection 26 Mar 2016, 19:26 UTC

The fire started on 21 March 2016 in Kisinda, India, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,201 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in Odisha since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 43 in India in 2016, of 47.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
5,201ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
21 Mar 2016 – 26 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
3
subdistricts
Started on
21 Mar
2016
Heat detections
172
in a single hotspot: 13 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
432MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Mar26 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
43km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 7 Apr.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Kisinda where it started
    3,226 ha reached on 19 Mar
    6.7 %
  2. Reamal
    1,640 ha reached on 21 Mar
    2.3 %
  3. Jamankira
    361 ha reached on 23 Mar
    0.5 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

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)
19 Mar 34.6 °C 34 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
20 Mar 34.4 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Mar 35.6 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Mar 34.6 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Mar 33.9 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Mar 34.6 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Mar 35.1 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Mar 36.1 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Mar after 36.5 °C 26 % 35 km/h 1.2 mm High 28
28 Mar after 33.0 °C 28 % 29 km/h 5.1 mm Low 9
29 Mar after 34.2 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
30 Mar after 34.2 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Mar after 34.7 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.5 mm High 29
1 Apr after 34.9 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
2 Apr after 36.4 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Apr after 37.5 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Apr after 38.3 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Apr after 36.3 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 40
6 Apr after 35.0 °C 29 % 52 km/h 0.9 mm High 32
7 Apr after 36.5 °C 27 % 35 km/h 1.3 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Mar 2016
After · 2 Apr 2016

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 · 172Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kisinda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 March 2016 and 26 March 2016: 6 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 5,201 hectares (52.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kisinda (3,226 ha, 6.7 %); Reamal (1,640 ha, 2.3 %); Jamankira (361 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of India (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

Satellite cross-check

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.

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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.

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 ADM3 (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.