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Malerkotla fire, November 2021 Malerkotla, Dhuri, Nabha

Out · last measured on 16 Nov 2021

The fire started on 3 November 2021 in Malerkotla, India, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,182 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 17th largest in Punjab since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 31 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
8,182ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
3 Nov 2021 – 16 Nov 2021
Municipalities hit
3
subdistricts
Started on
3 Nov
2021
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

29°high
32km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,831 ha in 2016, 2,501 ha in 2017, 1,205 ha in 2018, 954 ha in 2019, 2,250 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,429 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Malerkotla where it started
    4,265 ha
    8.6 %
  2. Dhuri
    2,846 ha
    4.8 %
  3. Nabha
    1,095 ha
    1.8 %

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)
3 Nov 28.1 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
4 Nov 28.7 °C 40 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
5 Nov 28.4 °C 35 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
6 Nov 28.2 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
7 Nov 28.5 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
8 Nov 28.4 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
9 Nov 28.7 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
10 Nov 29.0 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
11 Nov 28.7 °C 39 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
12 Nov 28.6 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
13 Nov 28.0 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 Nov 27.7 °C 31 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
15 Nov 26.6 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
16 Nov 26.6 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 Nov after 26.3 °C 33 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
18 Nov after 25.7 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
19 Nov after 26.0 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
20 Nov after 26.1 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
21 Nov after 26.3 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Nov after 26.2 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
23 Nov after 26.4 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
24 Nov after 26.3 °C 39 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
25 Nov after 26.2 °C 41 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
26 Nov after 25.4 °C 41 % 17 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 · 27 Oct 2021
After · 23 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 Malerkotla fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 November 2021 and 16 November 2021: 14 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 8,182 hectares (81.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Malerkotla (4,265 ha, 8.6 %); Dhuri (2,846 ha, 4.8 %); Nabha (1,095 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, 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.