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Chernyshevsky District fire, 23 May 2025 Mogochinsky District, Chernyshevsky District

Out · last detection 4 Jun 2025, 04:41 UTC

The fire started on 23 May 2025 in Chernyshevsky District, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,589 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 51th largest in Zabaykalsky Krai since 2016 (of 465 with a page). Number 35 in Russia in 2025, of 238.

Burnt area
18,589ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
23 May 2025 – 3 Jun 2025
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
23 May
2025
Heat detections
1,127
in a single hotspot: 179 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
1.1GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 May3 Jun
4 Jun 2025

How it evolved, day by day

23 May 2025 · 115 MW · 13 24 May 2025 · 111 MW · 14 25 May 2025 · 70 MW · 29 26 May 2025 · 532 MW · 122 27 May 2025 · 6,598 MW · 408 28 May 2025 · 1,369 MW · 245 29 May 2025 · 2,040 MW · 291 1 Jun 2025 · 3 MW · 1 3 Jun 2025 · 21 MW · 3 4 Jun 2025 · 3 MW · 1
23 May 25 May 27 May 29 May 3 Jun

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
67km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.8 mm on 4 Jun.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 296 ha in 2018, 288 ha in 2020, 96 ha in 2024.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 12% of the area of London (186 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. 15,081 ha reached on 23 May
    0.6 %
  2. Chernyshevsky District where it started
    3,354 ha reached on 23 May
    0.3 %

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)
23 May 19.6 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
24 May 25.0 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
25 May 25.9 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
26 May 29.1 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
27 May 30.6 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 May 31.5 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 May 20.6 °C 21 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 May 18.2 °C 31 % 44 km/h 1.6 mm Low 9
31 May 13.9 °C 25 % 67 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 14
1 Jun 20.1 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
2 Jun 15.1 °C 38 % 30 km/h 1.4 mm Low 7
3 Jun 20.0 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 14
4 Jun after 14.9 °C 53 % 43 km/h 6.8 mm Very low 1

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 13.1, a minimum humidity of 17% and 1 day without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2017: 20.

FWI at the start 13.1
Minimum humidity 17 %
Days without rain 1
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Chernyshevsky District fire, May 2025
3,681 ha 4 days FWI 12.9 Min. humidity 16 % 71 km away, in 2025

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.2 mm on 13 May.

What happened to them

5 days
median duration
5,003 ha
median area
10 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 20 of 20 had it)

It was 3.7 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 12 days, against 5 days.

None of its 20 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. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 3.4 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

6.8 mmfirst rain
4 Junthe day after it ended
67km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 3 Jun, and on 4 Jun 6.8 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 20 of 20, with a median of 3.4 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 2017.
  • 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 · 16 May 2025
After · 10 Jun 2025

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 29 May 2025 the air beside the fire reached 550 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 285: 19 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak550 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10557 µg/m³
Optical depth5.61
21 May24 May27 May30 May2 Jun
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 · 1,127Every 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 Chernyshevsky District fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 May 2025 to 3 June 2025 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 May 2025 to 1 June 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 18,589 hectares (185.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mogochinsky District (15,081 ha, 0.6 %); Chernyshevsky District (3,354 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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 2017 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 20. Their median duration was 5 days and their median area 5,003 ha; 10 % went past 10,000 ha. None of its 20 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. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 3.4 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. Last day with fire: 1 June 2025 → 3 June 2025.

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 23 May 2025 to 1 June 2025. 1,127 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.