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Kolhabi fire, April 2016 Nijgadh, Jitpur Simara, Kolhabi

Out · last detection 10 Apr 2016, 19:43 UTC

The fire started on 7 April 2016 in Kolhabi, Nepal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,082 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in Province 2 since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 17 in Nepal in 2016, of 47.

Burnt area
3,082ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
7 Apr 2016 – 10 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
7 Apr
2016
Heat detections
101
in a single hotspot: 38 MW
Danger at start
11
Low · FWI index
Energy released
526MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Apr10 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

78910

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
55km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Nijgadh
    2,826 ha reached on 5 Apr
    9.7 %
  2. Jitpur Simara
    177 ha reached on 7 Apr
    0.6 %
  3. Kolhabi where it started
    91 ha reached on 3 Apr
    0.6 %

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)
3 Apr 30.8 °C 53 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
4 Apr 30.5 °C 58 % 25 km/h 0.4 mm Low 11
5 Apr 37.4 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Apr 39.0 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Apr 39.3 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Apr 39.2 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Apr 40.5 °C 10 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
10 Apr 41.3 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Apr after 41.5 °C 13 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
12 Apr after 38.9 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Apr after 38.2 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Apr after 39.1 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Apr after 38.9 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Apr after 37.3 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Apr after 34.7 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Apr after 37.0 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
19 Apr after 39.7 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Apr after 39.9 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Apr after 39.5 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Apr after 39.4 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Apr after 39.6 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 47
24 Apr after 39.9 °C 7 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
25 Apr after 40.3 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Mar 2016
After · 17 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 · 101Every 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 Nepal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kolhabi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 April 2016 and 10 April 2016: 4 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 3,082 hectares (30.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Nijgadh (2,826 ha, 9.7 %); Jitpur Simara (177 ha, 0.6 %); Kolhabi (91 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Nepal (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: 101

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 101.

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 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License). 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.