Skip to content
worldfires
ID · Indonesia · →

Kuningan fire, September 2018 Kuningan, Majalengka

Out · last measured on 8 Oct 2018

The fire started on 30 September 2018 in Kuningan, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,621 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

Number 95 in Indonesia in 2018, of 110.

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
1,621ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
30 Sept 2018 – 8 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
regencies
Started on
30 Sept
2018
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

28°high
35km/h · peak gust
49%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 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. Kuningan where it started
    1,500 ha
    1.3 %
  2. Majalengka
    130 ha
    0.1 %

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)
30 Sept 26.8 °C 55 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
1 Oct 26.5 °C 60 % 26 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 13
2 Oct 26.6 °C 58 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 17
3 Oct 26.9 °C 58 % 29 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 16
4 Oct 26.8 °C 54 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
5 Oct 27.2 °C 51 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
6 Oct 27.2 °C 51 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
7 Oct 27.6 °C 50 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
8 Oct 27.4 °C 49 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
9 Oct after 27.5 °C 50 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
10 Oct after 27.2 °C 54 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
11 Oct after 27.2 °C 54 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
12 Oct after 27.1 °C 54 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 Oct after 26.8 °C 54 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
14 Oct after 27.4 °C 52 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
15 Oct after 27.1 °C 57 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
16 Oct after 26.9 °C 58 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
17 Oct after 26.7 °C 57 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
18 Oct after 27.2 °C 52 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 23

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Sept 2018
After · 15 Oct 2018

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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kuningan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 September 2018 and 8 October 2018: 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 1,621 hectares (16.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kuningan (1,500 ha, 1.3 %); Majalengka (130 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.6 °C, humidity dropped to 49 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Indonesia (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.

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.

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 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.