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Pelalawan fire, 26 August 2019 Pelalawan

Out · last measured on 22 Sept 2019

The fire started on 26 August 2019 in Pelalawan, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,370 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 9th largest in Riau since 2016 (of 110 with a page). Number 73 in Indonesia in 2019, of 418.

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
5,370ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
26 Aug 2019 – 22 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
26 Aug
2019
Danger at start
0
Very low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

36°high
42km/h · peak gust
37%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.9 mm on 23 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Pelalawan where it started
    5,406 ha
    0.4 %

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)
26 Aug 31.9 °C 65 % 20 km/h 30.2 mm Very low 0
27 Aug 32.0 °C 63 % 18 km/h 9.7 mm Very low 0
28 Aug 31.8 °C 61 % 23 km/h 3.3 mm Very low 0
29 Aug 34.2 °C 58 % 33 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 4
30 Aug 33.5 °C 46 % 42 km/h 1.6 mm Low 6
31 Aug 33.5 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
1 Sept 35.2 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
2 Sept 34.4 °C 50 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
3 Sept 34.1 °C 57 % 28 km/h 9.3 mm Very low 1
4 Sept 34.8 °C 52 % 31 km/h 2.4 mm Very low 2
5 Sept 34.1 °C 49 % 30 km/h 2.8 mm Very low 2
6 Sept 34.7 °C 51 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm Low 6
7 Sept 34.3 °C 54 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm Low 8
8 Sept 34.1 °C 52 % 30 km/h 0.8 mm Low 8
9 Sept 35.8 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.5 mm Low 11
10 Sept 35.0 °C 51 % 29 km/h 1.1 mm Low 7
11 Sept 35.6 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
12 Sept 34.6 °C 49 % 28 km/h 1.4 mm Low 8
13 Sept 33.9 °C 56 % 24 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 5
14 Sept 32.7 °C 58 % 24 km/h 3.4 mm Very low 2
15 Sept 33.6 °C 45 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm Low 8
16 Sept 32.4 °C 52 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm Low 10
17 Sept 34.5 °C 48 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
18 Sept 36.1 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 16
19 Sept 34.7 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
20 Sept 34.0 °C 55 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 14
21 Sept 34.6 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
22 Sept 33.5 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
23 Sept after 34.0 °C 55 % 35 km/h 7.9 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Aug 2019
After · 29 Sept 2019

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 Indonesia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pelalawan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 August 2019 and 22 September 2019: 28 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 5,370 hectares (53.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pelalawan (5,406 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 42 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 Indonesia (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
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.

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 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.