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Seoni-Malwa fire, March 2017 Seoni-Malwa

Out · last detection 4 Apr 2017, 20:53 UTC

The fire started on 27 March 2017 in Seoni-Malwa, India, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,319 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 36th largest in Madhya Pradesh since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 9 in India in 2017, of 27.

Burnt area
7,319ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
27 Mar 2017 – 3 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
27 Mar
2017
Heat detections
362
in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Mar3 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

27282930311234

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
40km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,589 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Seoni-Malwa where it started
    7,352 ha reached on 27 Mar
    5.7 %

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)
20 Mar 32.3 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Mar 34.7 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Mar 36.7 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Mar 38.4 °C 19 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Mar 38.6 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Mar 38.2 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Mar 39.1 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Mar 38.2 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Mar 40.5 °C 17 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Mar 40.9 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Mar 41.1 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
31 Mar 40.5 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Apr 40.2 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Apr 39.9 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 Apr 39.2 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
4 Apr after 38.7 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Apr after 38.3 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
6 Apr after 39.6 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Apr after 37.1 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
8 Apr after 36.9 °C 14 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Apr after 37.6 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
10 Apr after 36.7 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
11 Apr after 40.3 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Apr after 39.5 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Apr after 41.1 °C 10 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Apr after 42.0 °C 9 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Apr after 42.3 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Apr after 42.0 °C 14 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Apr after 42.2 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Apr after 42.7 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Apr after 42.0 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Mar 2017
After · 10 Apr 2017

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 · 362Every 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 India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Seoni-Malwa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 March 2017 and 3 April 2017: 8 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 7,319 hectares (73.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Seoni-Malwa (7,352 ha, 5.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.1 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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

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.

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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.

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.