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Manikpur fire, April 2019 Manikpur, Semaria, Birsinghpur

Out · last measured on 10 May 2019

The fire started on 25 April 2019 in Manikpur, India, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,134 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 19th largest in Uttar Pradesh since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 19 in India in 2019, of 28.

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
6,134ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
25 Apr 2019 – 10 May 2019
Municipalities hit
3
subdistricts
Started on
25 Apr
2019
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

43°high
50km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 11 May.

This area had burned before

88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,897 ha in 2016, 2,492 ha in 2017, 4,032 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,376 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Manikpur where it started
    4,488 ha
    3.8 %
  2. Semaria
    1,584 ha
    2.8 %
  3. Birsinghpur
    85 ha
    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)
25 Apr 41.5 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Apr 42.6 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Apr 41.2 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
28 Apr 41.5 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
29 Apr 42.3 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Apr 43.0 °C 16 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 May 42.1 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 May 42.3 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 May 39.1 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 May 36.3 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 May 38.8 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 May 41.3 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
7 May 41.4 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
8 May 42.3 °C 13 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
9 May 41.8 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
10 May 41.4 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
11 May after 39.5 °C 20 % 40 km/h 1.4 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Apr 2019
After · 17 May 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.

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Manikpur fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 April 2019 and 10 May 2019: 16 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 6,134 hectares (61.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Manikpur (4,488 ha, 3.8 %); Semaria (1,584 ha, 2.8 %); Birsinghpur (85 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 43.0 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, class Very 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.