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Lehra fire, November 2021 Lehra, Sunam, Moonak

Out · last measured on 19 Nov 2021

The fire started on 1 November 2021 in Lehra, India, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,997 hectares from heat detections, spread across 5 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in Punjab since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 16 in India in 2021, of 78.

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
10,997ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
1 Nov 2021 – 19 Nov 2021
Municipalities hit
5
subdistricts
Started on
1 Nov
2021
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

29°high
33km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,946 ha in 2016, 5,438 ha in 2017, 3,406 ha in 2018, 5,160 ha in 2019, 8,432 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,497 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Lehra where it started
    5,938 ha
    16 %
  2. Sunam
    2,864 ha
    5.5 %
  3. Moonak
    1,285 ha
    3.4 %
  4. Dirba
    582 ha
    2.3 %
  5. Patran
    368 ha
    0.8 %

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)
1 Nov 29.0 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
2 Nov 28.4 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
3 Nov 27.6 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
4 Nov 28.1 °C 45 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
5 Nov 28.1 °C 37 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
6 Nov 28.1 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
7 Nov 28.5 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
8 Nov 28.3 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
9 Nov 28.8 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
10 Nov 29.0 °C 38 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
11 Nov 28.3 °C 42 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
12 Nov 28.3 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
13 Nov 27.8 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 Nov 27.7 °C 31 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
15 Nov 26.5 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
16 Nov 26.3 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
17 Nov 26.1 °C 34 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Nov 25.4 °C 37 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
19 Nov 25.4 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
20 Nov after 25.6 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
21 Nov after 26.0 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Nov after 26.4 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Nov after 26.5 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Nov after 26.6 °C 38 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
25 Nov after 26.1 °C 47 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
26 Nov after 25.5 °C 42 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
27 Nov after 25.3 °C 44 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
28 Nov after 24.9 °C 55 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
29 Nov after 24.8 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Oct 2021
After · 26 Nov 2021

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

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lehra fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 November 2021 and 19 November 2021: 19 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 10,997 hectares (110.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Lehra (5,938 ha, 16 %); Sunam (2,864 ha, 5.5 %); Moonak (1,285 ha, 3.4 %); Dirba (582 ha, 2.3 %); Patran (368 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.
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.