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Rapti Sonari fire, March 2016 Rapti Sonari, Babai, Kalimati

Out · last detection 24 Apr 2016, 20:21 UTC

The fire started on 28 March 2016 in Rapti Sonari, Nepal, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 43,780 hectares from heat detections, spread across 6 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Lumbini since 2016 (of 47 with a page). The largest in Nepal in 2016, of 47.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Rapti Sonari · 2017Babai · 2021Kalimati · 2026Rapti Sonari · 2019

Burnt area
43,780ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
28 Mar 2016 – 24 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
6
municipalities
Started on
28 Mar
2016
Heat detections
2,730
in a single hotspot: 88 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Average daily power
386MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Mar24 Apr
24 Apr 2016

How it evolved, day by day

28 Mar 2016 · 16 MW · 11 29 Mar 2016 · 34 MW · 21 30 Mar 2016 · 16 MW · 6 31 Mar 2016 · 5 MW · 4 1 Apr 2016 · 19 MW · 5 2 Apr 2016 · 9 MW · 6 3 Apr 2016 · 7 MW · 2 4 Apr 2016 · 21 MW · 9 5 Apr 2016 · 57 MW · 20 6 Apr 2016 · 79 MW · 37 7 Apr 2016 · 36 MW · 27 8 Apr 2016 · 684 MW · 209 9 Apr 2016 · 1,522 MW · 343 10 Apr 2016 · 667 MW · 157 11 Apr 2016 · 1,811 MW · 411 12 Apr 2016 · 1,028 MW · 300 13 Apr 2016 · 993 MW · 353 14 Apr 2016 · 1,584 MW · 346 15 Apr 2016 · 687 MW · 173 16 Apr 2016 · 42 MW · 15 17 Apr 2016 · 1 MW · 1 18 Apr 2016 · 28 MW · 15 19 Apr 2016 · 33 MW · 20 20 Apr 2016 · 713 MW · 84 21 Apr 2016 · 491 MW · 94 22 Apr 2016 · 88 MW · 18 23 Apr 2016 · 102 MW · 35 24 Apr 2016 · 41 MW · 8
28 Mar 1 Apr 5 Apr 9 Apr 11 Apr 13 Apr 17 Apr 21 Apr

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
59km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 3 May.

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 28% of the area of London (438 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. Rapti Sonari where it started
    30,726 ha reached on 28 Mar
    29 %
  2. Babai
    6,294 ha reached on 28 Mar
    31 %
  3. Kalimati
    3,131 ha reached on 29 Mar
    6.2 %
  4. Dangisharan
    2,972 ha reached on 5 Apr
    27 %
  5. Lamahi
    821 ha reached on 28 Mar
    2.5 %
  6. Tulsipur
    3 ha reached on 11 Apr
    0.0 %

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 2015
Built-up area8.3 ha
Residents≈ 2,000

Inside the perimeter there were about 8.3 hectares of built-up land and about 2,000 residents (GHSL 2015, 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)
28 Mar 29.7 °C 24 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
29 Mar 28.9 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
30 Mar 29.4 °C 30 % 35 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 15
31 Mar 30.0 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Apr 29.5 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
2 Apr 29.0 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
3 Apr 29.3 °C 47 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
4 Apr 30.7 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
5 Apr 34.2 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Apr 33.2 °C 23 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Apr 31.9 °C 23 % 51 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
8 Apr 33.0 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Apr 33.9 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Apr 35.1 °C 15 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Apr 34.7 °C 18 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Apr 31.0 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
13 Apr 31.8 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Apr 32.9 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Apr 34.2 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Apr 33.3 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Apr 32.7 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Apr 30.9 °C 35 % 41 km/h 2.0 mm Moderate 15
19 Apr 34.5 °C 23 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Apr 36.4 °C 18 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Apr 34.5 °C 23 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Apr 35.1 °C 19 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Apr 34.2 °C 16 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Apr 32.8 °C 13 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Apr after 33.9 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Apr after 34.8 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Apr after 35.2 °C 15 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Apr after 35.4 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Apr after 35.6 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Apr after 34.3 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 May after 35.1 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 May after 33.4 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 May after 33.4 °C 33 % 45 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Mar 2016
After · 1 May 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 · 2,730Every 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 Nepal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Rapti Sonari fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 March 2016 to 24 April 2016 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 March 2016 to 22 April 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 43,780 hectares (437.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 6 municipalities: Rapti Sonari (30,726 ha, 29 %); Babai (6,294 ha, 31 %); Kalimati (3,131 ha, 6.2 %); Dangisharan (2,972 ha, 27 %); Lamahi (821 ha, 2.5 %); Tulsipur (3 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Nepal (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: 101 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 22 April 2016 → 24 April 2016.

RSS Changes to this page

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 101.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 28 March 2016 to 22 April 2016. 2,730 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 2015, 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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License). 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.