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Rapti Sonari fire, 16 April 2019 Rapti Sonari, Kohalpur, Kalimati

Out · last detection 13 May 2019, 20:32 UTC

The fire started on 16 April 2019 in Rapti Sonari, Nepal, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 26,744 hectares from heat detections, spread across 5 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Lumbini since 2016 (of 47 with a page). The largest in Nepal in 2019, of 25.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Rapti Sonari · 2016Rapti Sonari · 2017Rapti Sonari · 2016Rapti Sonari · 2022

Burnt area
26,744ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
16 Apr 2019 – 13 May 2019
Municipalities hit
5
municipalities
Started on
16 Apr
2019
Heat detections
1,459
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
6
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
193MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Apr13 May
13 May 2019

How it evolved, day by day

16 Apr 2019 · 2 MW · 2 17 Apr 2019 · 11 MW · 9 18 Apr 2019 · 34 MW · 19 19 Apr 2019 · 251 MW · 61 20 Apr 2019 · 160 MW · 67 21 Apr 2019 · 206 MW · 84 22 Apr 2019 · 510 MW · 163 23 Apr 2019 · 239 MW · 71 24 Apr 2019 · 121 MW · 39 25 Apr 2019 · 82 MW · 12 26 Apr 2019 · 110 MW · 35 27 Apr 2019 · 645 MW · 157 28 Apr 2019 · 863 MW · 250 29 Apr 2019 · 786 MW · 177 30 Apr 2019 · 221 MW · 70 1 May 2019 · 40 MW · 10 2 May 2019 · 295 MW · 30 3 May 2019 · 14 MW · 4 4 May 2019 · 39 MW · 14 5 May 2019 · 73 MW · 17 6 May 2019 · 116 MW · 26 7 May 2019 · 139 MW · 29 8 May 2019 · 200 MW · 54 9 May 2019 · 187 MW · 44 10 May 2019 · 17 MW · 2 11 May 2019 · 14 MW · 5 12 May 2019 · 29 MW · 6 13 May 2019 · 6 MW · 2
16 Apr 20 Apr 24 Apr 28 Apr 2 May 6 May 10 May

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
59km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 14 May.

This area had burned before

92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 22,928 ha in 2016, 16,095 ha in 2017, 3,214 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 24,541 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 17% of the area of London (267 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
    22,722 ha reached on 16 Apr
    22 %
  2. Kohalpur
    3,185 ha reached on 19 Apr
    17 %
  3. Kalimati
    509 ha reached on 17 Apr
    1.0 %
  4. Babai
    253 ha reached on 26 Apr
    1.3 %
  5. Baijanath
    188 ha reached on 19 Apr
    1.3 %

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 area0.29 ha
Residents≈ 80

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.29 hectares of built-up land and about 80 residents (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)
16 Apr 30.0 °C 48 % 42 km/h 4.5 mm Low 6
17 Apr 27.7 °C 45 % 26 km/h 1.0 mm Low 6
18 Apr 31.8 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
19 Apr 33.3 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
20 Apr 34.0 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 Apr 34.5 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Apr 34.7 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Apr 34.0 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
24 Apr 34.9 °C 41 % 21 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
25 Apr 37.0 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
26 Apr 38.1 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Apr 38.5 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Apr 38.7 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Apr 38.3 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Apr 39.2 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 May 40.0 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 May 39.3 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 May 34.3 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.4 mm High 37
4 May 35.0 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 May 37.4 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 May 38.4 °C 15 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 May 39.1 °C 14 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 May 39.7 °C 16 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 May 39.3 °C 16 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 May 38.8 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 May 39.4 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 May 38.3 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 May 37.8 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 May after 35.4 °C 34 % 35 km/h 1.4 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Apr 2019
After · 20 May 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.

Detections table · 1,459Every 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 16 April 2019 to 13 May 2019 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 April 2019 to 6 May 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 26,744 hectares (267.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Rapti Sonari (22,722 ha, 22 %); Kohalpur (3,185 ha, 17 %); Kalimati (509 ha, 1.0 %); Babai (253 ha, 1.3 %); Baijanath (188 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 6 May 2019 → 13 May 2019.
  2. Start date: 17 April 2019 → 16 April 2019.

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; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 17 April 2019 to 6 May 2019. 1,459 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 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.