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Miri fire, 12 March 2016 Miri, Marudi

Out · last measured on 29 Mar 2016

The fire started on 12 March 2016 in Miri, Malaysia, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,065 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 23th largest in Sarawak since 2016 (of 70 with a page). Number 34 in Malaysia in 2016, of 104.

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
1,065ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
12 Mar 2016 – 29 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
12 Mar
2016
Danger at start
1
Very low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

31°high
41km/h · peak gust
67%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 30 Mar.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Miri where it started
    468 ha
    0.1 %
  2. Marudi
    46 ha
    0.0 %

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)
12 Mar 29.9 °C 75 % 30 km/h 1.5 mm Very low 1
13 Mar 29.9 °C 74 % 26 km/h 3.1 mm Very low 0
14 Mar 30.4 °C 73 % 22 km/h 1.1 mm Very low 0
15 Mar 29.1 °C 80 % 25 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 0
16 Mar 29.5 °C 75 % 26 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 0
17 Mar 29.0 °C 76 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
18 Mar 31.1 °C 67 % 27 km/h 0.8 mm Very low 1
19 Mar 30.9 °C 72 % 24 km/h 3.0 mm Very low 0
20 Mar 29.7 °C 79 % 25 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 1
21 Mar 30.1 °C 75 % 29 km/h 2.5 mm Very low 0
22 Mar 30.1 °C 74 % 27 km/h 5.0 mm Very low 0
23 Mar 30.6 °C 72 % 28 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 0
24 Mar 30.5 °C 74 % 22 km/h 5.8 mm Very low 0
25 Mar 30.2 °C 75 % 24 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 0
26 Mar 29.1 °C 74 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 0
27 Mar 29.7 °C 71 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 1
28 Mar 29.5 °C 76 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 2
29 Mar 30.0 °C 72 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 2
30 Mar after 29.9 °C 73 % 27 km/h 2.4 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Mar 2016
After · 5 Apr 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.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Malaysia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Miri fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 March 2016 and 29 March 2016: 18 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 1,065 hectares (10.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Miri (468 ha, 0.1 %); Marudi (46 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 67 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 2, class Very low.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Malaysia (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: 999

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
What do you think is wrong?

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 999.

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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License). 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.