Nerchinsky District fire, 2 May 2025 Tungokochensky District, Nerchinsky District
The fire started on 2 May 2025 in Nerchinsky District, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 144,691 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.
It is the 2th largest in Zabaykalsky Krai since 2016 (of 470 with a page). Number 2 in Russia in 2025, of 249.
- Burnt area
- 144,691ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 31days
- 2 May 2025 – 1 Jun 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 2 May
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 9,257
- in a single hotspot: 638 MW
- Danger at start
- 9
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 127.9GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.0 mm on 2 Jun.
This area had burned before
15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,279 ha in 2016, 1,408 ha in 2017, 14,125 ha in 2018, 572 ha in 2019, 2,620 ha in 2020, 1,548 ha in 2021, 446 ha in 2022, 133 ha in 2023, 1,362 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 21,196 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
72,838 ha reached on 2 May1.4 %
-
Nerchinsky District where it started69,485 ha reached on 2 May13 %
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 May | 9.8 °C | 15 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 3 May | 9.6 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 11 |
| 4 May | 12.3 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 5 May | 11.7 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 6 May | 14.1 °C | 13 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 7 May | 13.1 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 8 May | 13.1 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 9 May | 19.8 °C | 9 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 10 May | 21.4 °C | 20 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 May | 17.8 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 12 May | 20.9 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 13 May | 13.3 °C | 21 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 14 May | 10.0 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 15 May | 10.2 °C | 18 % | 45 km/h | 5.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 16 May | 11.9 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 17 May | 12.0 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 18 May | 9.5 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 19 May | 12.6 °C | 23 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 20 May | 12.3 °C | 34 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 21 May | 11.5 °C | 44 % | 47 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 22 May | 17.8 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 23 May | 20.0 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 24 May | 24.2 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 25 May | 24.2 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 26 May | 28.9 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 27 May | 29.8 °C | 14 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 May | 32.7 °C | 14 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 May | 21.0 °C | 21 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 May | 20.1 °C | 20 % | 47 km/h | 3.2 mm | Low 8 |
| 31 May | 13.7 °C | 20 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 1 Jun | 18.6 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 2 Jun after | 16.4 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 4.0 mm | Very low 3 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 11 May 2025 the air beside the fire reached 799 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 433: 29 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 9,257Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,867 haTungokochensky District16 May 2018 · 5 days · 22 km away
- 7,243 haTungokochensky District14 July 2024 · 20 days · 24 km away
- 10,523 haTungokochensky District23 April 2025 · 6 days · 26 km away
- 8,440 haTungokochensky District14 May 2018 · 7 days · 27 km away
- 3,467 haNerchinsky District19 May 2025 · 10 days · 33 km away
- 11,308 haTungokochensky District26 September 2024 · 14 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nerchinsky District fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 May 2025 and 1 June 2025: 31 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 144,691 hectares (1,446.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tungokochensky District (72,838 ha, 1.4 %); Nerchinsky District (69,485 ha, 13 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.
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.
Report an error
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.