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Seruyan fire, August 2023 Seruyan

Out · last measured on 29 Aug 2023

The fire started on 4 August 2023 in Seruyan, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,610 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 293th largest in Central Kalimantan since 2016 (of 315 with a page). Number 138 in Indonesia in 2023, of 168.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
1,610ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
4 Aug 2023 – 29 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
4 Aug
2023
Danger at start
8
Low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

30°high
48km/h · peak gust
63%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,151 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,589 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Seruyan where it started
    1,623 ha
    0.1 %

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)
4 Aug 29.9 °C 66 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
5 Aug 29.9 °C 70 % 48 km/h 0.8 mm Low 6
6 Aug 29.0 °C 76 % 35 km/h 7.3 mm Very low 0
7 Aug 29.9 °C 64 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
8 Aug 29.4 °C 67 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
9 Aug 29.6 °C 63 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
10 Aug 29.2 °C 67 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
11 Aug 28.1 °C 69 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
12 Aug 28.6 °C 64 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
13 Aug 29.6 °C 68 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
14 Aug 29.0 °C 68 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
15 Aug 29.7 °C 69 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
16 Aug 29.6 °C 67 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
17 Aug 29.2 °C 70 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
18 Aug 29.2 °C 70 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Low 11
19 Aug 29.5 °C 69 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
20 Aug 29.5 °C 68 % 45 km/h 0.6 mm Low 10
21 Aug 29.3 °C 64 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
22 Aug 28.7 °C 70 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 12
23 Aug 29.4 °C 70 % 43 km/h 0.7 mm Low 9
24 Aug 29.7 °C 70 % 46 km/h 1.2 mm Low 7
25 Aug 29.5 °C 71 % 45 km/h 1.5 mm Low 6
26 Aug 29.2 °C 69 % 42 km/h 0.6 mm Low 8
27 Aug 29.9 °C 63 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
28 Aug 29.6 °C 66 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
29 Aug 29.5 °C 65 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
30 Aug after 29.0 °C 71 % 48 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 13
31 Aug after 29.8 °C 65 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
1 Sept after 29.0 °C 67 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
2 Sept after 29.0 °C 61 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
3 Sept after 29.1 °C 62 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
4 Sept after 28.8 °C 64 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
5 Sept after 29.7 °C 67 % 44 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 12
6 Sept after 29.8 °C 67 % 47 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 14
7 Sept after 29.5 °C 68 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
8 Sept after 29.6 °C 66 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Jul 2023
After · 5 Sept 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 23 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 35 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak35 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1056 µg/m³
Optical depth0.98
23456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Indonesia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Seruyan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 August 2023 and 29 August 2023: 26 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 1,610 hectares (16.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Seruyan (1,623 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.9 °C, humidity dropped to 63 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Indonesia (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.

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 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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.