How long did the Peshrar fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 March 2017 and 4 April 2017: 9 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 12,816 hectares (128.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Peshrar (6,711 ha, 19 %); Bishunpur (5,377 ha, 8.8 %); Latehar (791 ha, 1.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.

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.

IN · India · 2017-03-27 → 2017-04-04

Peshrar fire, March 2017 Peshrar, Bishunpur, Latehar

Out · last detection 5 Apr 2017, 08:06 UTC

The fire started on 27 March 2017 in Peshrar, India, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,816 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

Number 4 in India in 2017, of 27.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 12,816ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 9days; 27 Mar 2017 – 4 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit: 3; subdistricts
Started on: 27 Mar; 2017
Heat detections: 487; in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start: 28; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 5 Apr 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Mar4 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2729303112345

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

56km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 21 Apr.

This area had burned before

20% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,536 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

Peshrar where it started

6,711 ha reached on 27 Mar

19 %
Bishunpur

5,377 ha reached on 27 Mar

8.8 %
Latehar

791 ha reached on 30 Mar

1.6 %

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)
22 Mar	30.1 °C	26 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
23 Mar	32.1 °C	24 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
24 Mar	33.3 °C	23 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
25 Mar	34.5 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
26 Mar	33.2 °C	19 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
27 Mar	33.6 °C	20 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
28 Mar	33.9 °C	24 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
29 Mar	34.9 °C	18 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
30 Mar	36.4 °C	15 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
31 Mar	36.0 °C	18 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
1 Apr	35.8 °C	16 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
2 Apr	35.9 °C	17 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
3 Apr	35.3 °C	18 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
4 Apr	36.2 °C	19 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
5 Apr after	35.6 °C	23 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
6 Apr after	35.9 °C	25 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
7 Apr after	37.1 °C	18 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
8 Apr after	36.5 °C	22 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
9 Apr after	33.7 °C	18 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
10 Apr after	32.4 °C	12 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
11 Apr after	33.3 °C	12 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
12 Apr after	34.7 °C	12 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
13 Apr after	36.1 °C	13 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
14 Apr after	36.1 °C	13 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
15 Apr after	35.8 °C	14 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
16 Apr after	34.0 °C	20 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
17 Apr after	35.2 °C	26 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
18 Apr after	36.7 °C	24 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
19 Apr after	38.2 °C	13 %	44 km/h	0.5 mm	Extreme 54
20 Apr after	36.0 °C	16 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
21 Apr after	37.3 °C	19 %	49 km/h	1.1 mm	Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 20 Mar 2017

After · 11 Apr 2017

Before After

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 · 487Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Peshrar fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 March 2017 and 4 April 2017: 9 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 12,816 hectares (128.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Peshrar (6,711 ha, 19 %); Bishunpur (5,377 ha, 8.8 %); Latehar (791 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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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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.

Where it burned