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Penzhinsky District fire, 26 June 2021 Penzhinsky District

Out · last detection 22 Jul 2021, 23:14 UTC

The fire started on 26 June 2021 in Penzhinsky District, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 24,697 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Kamchatka Krai since 2016 (of 62 with a page). Number 77 in Russia in 2021, of 581.

Burnt area
24,697ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
27days
26 Jun 2021 – 22 Jul 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
26 Jun
2021
Heat detections
3,378
in a single hotspot: 299 MW
Danger at start
1
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
1.4GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jun22 Jul
22 Jul 2021

How it evolved, day by day

28 Jun 2021 · 242 MW · 43 29 Jun 2021 · 1,537 MW · 108 30 Jun 2021 · 553 MW · 80 1 Jul 2021 · 88 MW · 11 2 Jul 2021 · 157 MW · 30 3 Jul 2021 · 723 MW · 59 4 Jul 2021 · 2,059 MW · 188 5 Jul 2021 · 2,427 MW · 138 6 Jul 2021 · 195 MW · 31 8 Jul 2021 · 308 MW · 87 9 Jul 2021 · 2,333 MW · 313 10 Jul 2021 · 1,857 MW · 257 11 Jul 2021 · 2,120 MW · 287 12 Jul 2021 · 4,498 MW · 401 13 Jul 2021 · 3,633 MW · 333 14 Jul 2021 · 1,164 MW · 148 15 Jul 2021 · 1 MW · 2 16 Jul 2021 · 213 MW · 48 17 Jul 2021 · 1,638 MW · 189 19 Jul 2021 · 110 MW · 8 20 Jul 2021 · 6,720 MW · 577 21 Jul 2021 · 61 MW · 7 22 Jul 2021 · 259 MW · 33
28 Jun 3 Jul 9 Jul 14 Jul 20 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

24°high
62km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.8 mm on 26 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 16% of the area of London (247 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. Penzhinsky District where it started
    24,378 ha reached on 28 Jun
    0.2 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)
26 Jun 22.6 °C 48 % 30 km/h 7.4 mm Very low 1
27 Jun 20.1 °C 51 % 32 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 1
28 Jun 18.6 °C 59 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 3
29 Jun 20.5 °C 53 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
30 Jun 20.8 °C 53 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
1 Jul 16.0 °C 49 % 55 km/h 3.2 mm Very low 4
2 Jul 12.5 °C 49 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
3 Jul 14.3 °C 52 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
4 Jul 18.1 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
5 Jul 20.4 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
6 Jul 13.7 °C 66 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
7 Jul 10.2 °C 83 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
8 Jul 13.7 °C 77 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
9 Jul 19.7 °C 60 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
10 Jul 19.9 °C 49 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
11 Jul 18.6 °C 52 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
12 Jul 24.0 °C 39 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
13 Jul 23.3 °C 48 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
14 Jul 18.4 °C 71 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
15 Jul 21.9 °C 59 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
16 Jul 19.8 °C 66 % 24 km/h 0.4 mm Low 8
17 Jul 22.6 °C 48 % 32 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 13
18 Jul 16.3 °C 67 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
19 Jul 20.1 °C 60 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
20 Jul 18.5 °C 44 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
21 Jul 17.0 °C 62 % 37 km/h 0.7 mm Low 10
22 Jul 20.2 °C 59 % 36 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 4
23 Jul after 21.6 °C 52 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
24 Jul after 20.4 °C 59 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm Low 8
25 Jul after 16.6 °C 73 % 32 km/h 0.5 mm Low 9
26 Jul after 15.5 °C 77 % 42 km/h 5.8 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 0.7, a minimum humidity of 48% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 23.

FWI at the start 0.7
Minimum humidity 48 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Penzhinsky District fire, September 2016
3,647 ha 14 days FWI 3.5 Min. humidity 48 % 32 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 9.5 mm on 19 Sept.

What happened to them

12 days
median duration
5,074 ha
median area
22 %
went past 10,000 ha
5.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 23 of 23 had it)

It was 4.9 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 27 days, against 12 days.

None of its 23 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 5.0 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

5.8 mmfirst rain
26 Jul4 days after it ended
62km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 22 Jul, and on 26 Jul 5.8 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 23 of 23, with a median of 5.0 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 · 19 Jun 2021
After · 29 Jul 2021

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 · 3,378Every 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 Penzhinsky District fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 June 2021 and 22 July 2021: 27 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 24,697 hectares (247.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Penzhinsky District (24,378 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 24.0 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
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: 23. Their median duration was 12 days and their median area 5,074 ha; 22 % went past 10,000 ha. None of its 23 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 5.0 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 3,378 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 2020, 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.