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Moga fire, November 2021 Moga, Nihal Singhwala, Bagha Purana

Out · last measured on 15 Nov 2021

The fire started on 2 November 2021 in Moga, India, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,143 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 24th largest in Punjab since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 41 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
7,143ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
2 Nov 2021 – 15 Nov 2021
Municipalities hit
3
subdistricts
Started on
2 Nov
2021
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

29°high
39km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,537 ha in 2016, 1,916 ha in 2017, 1,467 ha in 2018, 2,087 ha in 2019, 4,168 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,580 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Moga where it started
    3,523 ha
    5.4 %
  2. Nihal Singhwala
    2,937 ha
    6.6 %
  3. Bagha Purana
    706 ha
    1.2 %

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)
2 Nov 27.6 °C 45 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
3 Nov 26.7 °C 51 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
4 Nov 28.3 °C 37 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
5 Nov 27.9 °C 37 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
6 Nov 27.9 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
7 Nov 28.2 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
8 Nov 28.4 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
9 Nov 28.8 °C 34 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
10 Nov 28.9 °C 39 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
11 Nov 28.4 °C 43 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
12 Nov 28.4 °C 34 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
13 Nov 28.0 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 Nov 27.6 °C 32 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
15 Nov 26.5 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
16 Nov after 26.2 °C 30 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
17 Nov after 26.2 °C 32 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Nov after 25.6 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
19 Nov after 25.5 °C 36 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
20 Nov after 25.5 °C 33 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
21 Nov after 25.9 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 Nov after 26.1 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
23 Nov after 26.5 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
24 Nov after 26.5 °C 37 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
25 Nov after 26.3 °C 41 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Oct 2021
After · 22 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 Moga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 November 2021 and 15 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 7,143 hectares (71.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Moga (3,523 ha, 5.4 %); Nihal Singhwala (2,937 ha, 6.6 %); Bagha Purana (706 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 39 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.