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Kusmi fire, March 2017 Kusmi, Bharatpur

Out · last detection 7 Apr 2017, 19:56 UTC

The fire started on 29 March 2017 in Kusmi, India, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,172 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 49th largest in Madhya Pradesh since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 18 in India in 2017, of 27.

Burnt area
6,172ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
29 Mar 2017 – 7 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
29 Mar
2017
Heat detections
246
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Mar7 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2930311234567

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
47km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 21 Apr.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 961 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Kusmi where it started
    5,710 ha reached on 26 Mar
    3.9 %
  2. Bharatpur
    486 ha reached on 2 Apr
    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)
26 Mar 35.8 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Mar 36.2 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Mar 37.9 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Mar 38.5 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Mar 39.2 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Mar 39.2 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Apr 39.5 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Apr 38.7 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
3 Apr 38.9 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Apr 39.3 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Apr 38.8 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
6 Apr 38.3 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
7 Apr 39.4 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Apr after 38.7 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Apr after 35.8 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Apr after 34.3 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Apr after 35.7 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
12 Apr after 37.7 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Apr after 38.8 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Apr after 39.6 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Apr after 40.0 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
16 Apr after 39.0 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
17 Apr after 39.1 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Apr after 39.8 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
19 Apr after 41.1 °C 11 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
20 Apr after 39.4 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
21 Apr after 40.7 °C 17 % 46 km/h 1.6 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Mar 2017
After · 14 Apr 2017

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 · 246Every 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 Kusmi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 March 2017 and 7 April 2017: 10 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 6,172 hectares (61.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kusmi (5,710 ha, 3.9 %); Bharatpur (486 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, class Extreme.
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.