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Mansa fire, 31 October 2016 Mansa, Budhlada

Out · last detection 16 Nov 2016, 08:34 UTC

The fire started on 31 October 2016 in Mansa, India, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,441 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Punjab since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 11 in India in 2016, of 47.

Burnt area
12,441ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
31 Oct 2016 – 15 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
31 Oct
2016
Heat detections
1,191
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Oct15 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

3112345678910111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
32km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 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. Mansa where it started
    9,246 ha reached on 24 Oct
    11 %
  2. Budhlada
    3,238 ha reached on 24 Oct
    4.4 %

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)
24 Oct 34.3 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Oct 33.8 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Oct 33.5 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Oct 33.4 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Oct 32.9 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Oct 32.9 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Oct 31.9 °C 29 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Oct 31.2 °C 29 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Nov 30.6 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Nov 30.6 °C 38 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Nov 30.6 °C 36 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Nov 30.8 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Nov 30.0 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Nov 30.1 °C 33 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Nov 29.6 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Nov 31.0 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Nov 31.9 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Nov 30.7 °C 27 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Nov 31.2 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Nov 30.1 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Nov 28.9 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Nov 28.3 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Nov 27.8 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Nov after 27.8 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Nov after 28.2 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Nov after 28.8 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Nov after 28.8 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Nov after 29.5 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Nov after 30.5 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Nov after 30.2 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Nov after 28.4 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Nov after 28.2 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Nov after 29.3 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Nov after 29.3 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Nov after 29.9 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Nov after 29.5 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Nov after 29.0 °C 26 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Nov after 27.8 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Dec after 26.4 °C 47 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Dec after 26.9 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Oct 2016
After · 22 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 · 1,191Every 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 Mansa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 October 2016 and 15 November 2016: 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 12,441 hectares (124.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mansa (9,246 ha, 11 %); Budhlada (3,238 ha, 4.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 32 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.

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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.