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Kodur fire, March 2022 Kodur, Obulavaripalle, Yerravaripalem

Out · last measured on 20 Mar 2022

The fire started on 14 March 2022 in Kodur, India, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,910 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 17th largest in Andhra Pradesh since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 17 in India in 2022, of 28.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
6,910ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
14 Mar 2022 – 20 Mar 2022
Municipalities hit
4
subdistricts
Started on
14 Mar
2022
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
39km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 21 Mar.

This area had burned before

84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,431 ha in 2016, 2,390 ha in 2017, 5,204 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,835 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Kodur where it started
    4,627 ha
    6.8 %
  2. Obulavaripalle
    1,988 ha
    4.2 %
  3. Yerravaripalem
    215 ha
    0.7 %
  4. T Sundupalle
    120 ha
    0.2 %

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)
14 Mar 31.2 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Mar 32.1 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Mar 32.8 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Mar 33.4 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Mar 33.3 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Mar 32.7 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
20 Mar 32.0 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 20
21 Mar after 33.3 °C 40 % 23 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 15

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Mar 2022
After · 27 Mar 2022

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

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kodur fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 March 2022 and 20 March 2022: 7 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 6,910 hectares (69.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Kodur (4,627 ha, 6.8 %); Obulavaripalle (1,988 ha, 4.2 %); Yerravaripalem (215 ha, 0.7 %); T Sundupalle (120 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.