Sarumarani fire, April 2023 Sarumarani, Rapti, Sitganga
The fire started on 17 April 2023 in Sarumarani, Nepal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,351 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 38th largest in Lumbini since 2016 (of 49 with a page). Number 8 in Nepal in 2023, of 11.
- Burnt area
- 2,351ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 17 Apr 2023 – 20 Apr 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 17 Apr
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 97
- in a single hotspot: 35 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 406MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.3 mm on 24 Apr.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,949 ha in 2016, 6 ha in 2017, 1,399 ha in 2019, 1,651 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,261 ha that had burned before.
- 873 ha Sitganga fire, April 2016 12,750 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 242 ha Rapti fire, May 2019 2,784 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5 ha Sitganga fire, April 2016 7,234 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Sarumarani where it started1,595 ha reached on 17 Apr10 %
-
660 ha reached on 17 Apr4.1 %
-
104 ha reached on 18 Apr0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Apr | 36.2 °C | 18 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Apr | 36.0 °C | 18 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 14 Apr | 35.5 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Apr | 35.3 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Apr | 37.6 °C | 19 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 17 Apr | 38.2 °C | 19 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 18 Apr | 39.4 °C | 18 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 19 Apr | 38.6 °C | 19 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 20 Apr | 37.9 °C | 18 % | 66 km/h | 0.2 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 21 Apr after | 31.0 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 3.2 mm | Low 11 |
| 22 Apr after | 33.8 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 23 Apr after | 33.7 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 24 Apr after | 25.7 °C | 43 % | 31 km/h | 4.3 mm | Very low 4 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 24 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 41: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 97Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sarumarani fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 April 2023 and 20 April 2023: 4 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 2,351 hectares (23.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sarumarani (1,595 ha, 10 %); Rapti (660 ha, 4.1 %); Sitganga (104 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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
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
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.