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Lehra fire, October 2016 Sunam, Lehra

Out · last detection 10 Nov 2016, 08:46 UTC

The fire started on 26 October 2016 in Lehra, India, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,978 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 26th largest in Punjab since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 25 in India in 2016, of 47.

Burnt area
6,978ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
26 Oct 2016 – 9 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
26 Oct
2016
Heat detections
554
in a single hotspot: 94 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Oct9 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

26272829303112345678910

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
33km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 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. Sunam
    4,978 ha reached on 22 Oct
    9.6 %
  2. Lehra where it started
    2,023 ha reached on 19 Oct
    5.3 %

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)
19 Oct 35.9 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Oct 34.8 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Oct 34.9 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Oct 34.4 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Oct 33.8 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Oct 34.0 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Oct 33.5 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Oct 33.3 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Oct 33.1 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Oct 32.5 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Oct 32.5 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Oct 31.5 °C 31 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Oct 31.0 °C 30 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Nov 30.4 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Nov 30.5 °C 38 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Nov 30.5 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Nov 30.6 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Nov 29.8 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Nov 29.9 °C 33 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Nov 29.4 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Nov 30.5 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Nov 31.4 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Nov after 30.5 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Nov after 30.8 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Nov after 30.2 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Nov after 29.0 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Nov after 28.3 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Nov after 27.6 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Nov after 27.6 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Nov after 28.0 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Nov after 28.4 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Nov after 28.5 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Nov after 29.2 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Nov after 30.2 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Nov after 30.0 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Nov after 28.0 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Nov after 27.9 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Nov after 28.9 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Oct 2016
After · 16 Nov 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 · 554Every 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 India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lehra fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 October 2016 and 9 November 2016: 15 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 6,978 hectares (69.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sunam (4,978 ha, 9.6 %); Lehra (2,023 ha, 5.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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.

Report an error
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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.