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Kurmangazinskiy fire, July 2019 Құрманғазы ауданы · Kurmangazinskiy

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2019, 09:29 UTC

The fire started on 22 July 2019 in Kurmangazinskiy, Kazakhstan, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,258 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 15th largest in Atyrau Region since 2016 (of 42 with a page). Number 54 in Kazakhstan in 2019, of 163.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kurmangazinskiy · 2017Kurmangazinskiy · 2021Kurmangazinskiy · 2019Kurmangazinskiy · 2021

Burnt area
6,258ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
23days
22 Jul 2019 – 13 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Jul
2019
Heat detections
341
in a single hotspot: 220 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
705MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jul13 Aug
13 Aug 2019

How it evolved, day by day

22 Jul 2019 · 24 MW · 5 23 Jul 2019 · 117 MW · 11 24 Jul 2019 · 61 MW · 9 25 Jul 2019 · 1,043 MW · 50 26 Jul 2019 · 907 MW · 30 27 Jul 2019 · 1,868 MW · 29 29 Jul 2019 · 34 MW · 2 30 Jul 2019 · 38 MW · 7 31 Jul 2019 · 717 MW · 33 2 Aug 2019 · 774 MW · 15 3 Aug 2019 · 127 MW · 16 4 Aug 2019 · 6,119 MW · 124 5 Aug 2019 · 2 MW · 1 6 Aug 2019 · 25 MW · 3 9 Aug 2019 · 111 MW · 4 12 Aug 2019 · 10 MW · 1 13 Aug 2019 · 4 MW · 1
22 Jul 26 Jul 31 Jul 4 Aug 13 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

34°high
54km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,986 ha in 2017.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4% of the area of London (63 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. Kurmangazinskiy Құрманғазы ауданы where it started
    5,848 ha reached on 22 Jul
    0.3 %

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 area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
22 Jul 28.0 °C 45 % 46 km/h 3.2 mm Moderate 12
23 Jul 29.2 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Jul 28.4 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
25 Jul 34.4 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 47
26 Jul 32.5 °C 26 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Jul 27.8 °C 42 % 52 km/h 2.1 mm Very high 40
28 Jul 30.7 °C 28 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
29 Jul 32.4 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Jul 32.6 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Jul 31.1 °C 47 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
1 Aug 25.0 °C 31 % 51 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
2 Aug 26.0 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
3 Aug 26.6 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Aug 26.6 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Aug 25.8 °C 32 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Aug 26.7 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Aug 27.2 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Aug 29.5 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
9 Aug 29.0 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Aug 29.6 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Aug 25.7 °C 37 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Aug 25.3 °C 31 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Aug 25.0 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Aug after 27.3 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Aug after 28.3 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Aug after 27.4 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
17 Aug after 27.8 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Aug after 29.7 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Aug after 30.1 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Aug after 31.5 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Aug after 33.2 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Aug after 35.1 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Aug after 33.4 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 12.1, a minimum humidity of 45% and 7 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.

FWI at the start 12.1
Minimum humidity 45 %
Days without rain 7
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Kurmangazinskiy fire, April 2017
8,839 ha 8 days FWI 15.2 Min. humidity 42 % 1 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.1 mm on 15 May.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

4 days
median duration
4,108 ha
median area
5 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 18 of 19 had it)

It was 1.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 23 days, against 4 days.

Only 3 of its 19 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.5 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
54km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 13 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 18 of 19, with a median of 3.5 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 · 15 Jul 2019
After · 20 Aug 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 · 341Every 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 Kazakhstan

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kurmangazinskiy fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 July 2019 to 13 August 2019 (23 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 July 2019 to 6 August 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,258 hectares (62.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kurmangazinskiy (5,848 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Kazakhstan (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: 19. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 4,108 ha; 5 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 3 of its 19 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.5 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 6 August 2019 → 13 August 2019.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 July 2019 to 6 August 2019. 341 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.