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Obulavaripalle fire, March 2016 T Sundupalle, Pullampeta, Obulavaripalle

Out · last detection 30 Mar 2016, 07:20 UTC

The fire started on 23 March 2016 in Obulavaripalle, India, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,611 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Andhra Pradesh since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 29 in India in 2016, of 47.

Burnt area
6,611ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
23 Mar 2016 – 30 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
3
subdistricts
Started on
23 Mar
2016
Heat detections
186
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Mar30 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
34km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. T Sundupalle
    3,664 ha reached on 23 Mar
    7.2 %
  2. Pullampeta
    1,819 ha reached on 24 Mar
    4.5 %
  3. Obulavaripalle where it started
    1,166 ha reached on 19 Mar
    2.5 %

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)
19 Mar 36.3 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Mar 36.9 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Mar 38.2 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Mar 37.6 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Mar 36.7 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Mar 35.3 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Mar 35.4 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Mar 35.1 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Mar 35.1 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Mar 33.9 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Mar 35.3 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Mar 35.5 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Mar after 35.4 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Apr after 35.3 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
2 Apr after 36.2 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Apr after 36.5 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Apr after 37.1 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Apr after 36.5 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Apr after 36.1 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Apr after 36.9 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Apr after 36.2 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Apr after 36.1 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Apr after 36.0 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Apr after 37.4 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Mar 2016
After · 6 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.

Detections table · 186Every 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 India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Obulavaripalle fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2016 and 30 March 2016: 8 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 6,611 hectares (66.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: T Sundupalle (3,664 ha, 7.2 %); Pullampeta (1,819 ha, 4.5 %); Obulavaripalle (1,166 ha, 2.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
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.