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Mogochinsky District fire, 20 June 2024 Mogochinsky District

Out · last detection 12 Jul 2024, 05:35 UTC

The fire started on 20 June 2024 in Mogochinsky District, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,255 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 58th largest in Zabaykalsky Krai since 2016 (of 465 with a page). Number 82 in Russia in 2024, of 557.

Burnt area
17,255ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
23days
20 Jun 2024 – 12 Jul 2024
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
20 Jun
2024
Heat detections
2,208
in a single hotspot: 358 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
756MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jun12 Jul
12 Jul 2024

How it evolved, day by day

20 Jun 2024 · 4 MW · 1 21 Jun 2024 · 9 MW · 1 22 Jun 2024 · 70 MW · 20 23 Jun 2024 · 403 MW · 52 24 Jun 2024 · 608 MW · 75 25 Jun 2024 · 30 MW · 1 26 Jun 2024 · 255 MW · 58 27 Jun 2024 · 249 MW · 26 28 Jun 2024 · 32 MW · 8 29 Jun 2024 · 26 MW · 7 30 Jun 2024 · 5 MW · 2 1 Jul 2024 · 346 MW · 92 2 Jul 2024 · 2,608 MW · 299 3 Jul 2024 · 2,202 MW · 348 4 Jul 2024 · 2,501 MW · 377 5 Jul 2024 · 2,274 MW · 247 6 Jul 2024 · 27 MW · 13 7 Jul 2024 · 1,212 MW · 210 8 Jul 2024 · 1,293 MW · 225 9 Jul 2024 · 499 MW · 56 10 Jul 2024 · 25 MW · 6 11 Jul 2024 · 12 MW · 8 12 Jul 2024 · 2,700 MW · 76
20 Jun 25 Jun 30 Jun 5 Jul 12 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
43km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.6 mm on 13 Jul.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 283 ha in 2017.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 11% of the area of London (173 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Mogochinsky District where it started
    17,331 ha reached on 20 Jun
    0.7 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
20 Jun 24.0 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
21 Jun 23.7 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
22 Jun 24.5 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
23 Jun 27.2 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 15
24 Jun 27.8 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
25 Jun 26.7 °C 31 % 26 km/h 2.1 mm Low 6
26 Jun 28.0 °C 34 % 18 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 13
27 Jun 25.5 °C 36 % 29 km/h 1.3 mm Low 9
28 Jun 25.7 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 18
29 Jun 24.0 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 20
30 Jun 26.7 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
1 Jul 31.2 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Jul 32.4 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Jul 33.3 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Jul 31.5 °C 28 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Jul 31.5 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.8 mm High 22
6 Jul 23.1 °C 50 % 36 km/h 1.6 mm Low 9
7 Jul 28.3 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
8 Jul 30.8 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Jul 30.0 °C 30 % 25 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 16
10 Jul 27.9 °C 41 % 24 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 12
11 Jul 22.4 °C 61 % 22 km/h 5.3 mm Very low 1
12 Jul 26.9 °C 39 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm Low 6
13 Jul after 25.8 °C 39 % 37 km/h 9.6 mm Very low 3

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 12.1, a minimum humidity of 25% and 1 day without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 43.

FWI at the start 12.1
Minimum humidity 25 %
Days without rain 1
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Tungiro-Olyokminsky District fire, July 2020
3,427 ha 8 days FWI 12.1 Min. humidity 26 % 110 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 8.0 mm on 15 Jul.

What happened to them

13 days
median duration
5,188 ha
median area
19 %
went past 10,000 ha
5.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 42 of 43 had it)

It was 3.3 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 23 days, against 13 days.

Only 3 of its 43 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 43, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.6 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

9.6 mmfirst rain
13 Julthe day after it ended
43km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 12 Jul, and on 13 Jul 9.6 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 42 of 43, with a median of 5.6 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jun 2024
After · 19 Jul 2024

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 4 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 725 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 408: 27 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak725 µg/m³
Days over the guideline24 days
PM101,036 µg/m³
Optical depth6.27
19 Jun25 Jun1 Jul7 Jul13 Jul
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 2,208Every 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 Russia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mogochinsky District fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 June 2024 to 12 July 2024 (23 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 June 2024 to 12 July 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 17,255 hectares (172.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mogochinsky District (17,331 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Russia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 43. Their median duration was 13 days and their median area 5,188 ha; 19 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 3 of its 43 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 43, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.6 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 21 June 2024 → 20 June 2024.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 June 2024 to 12 July 2024. 2,208 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 (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.