Sharada fire, April 2021 Sharada, Chhatreshwori, Tribeni
The fire started on 19 April 2021 in Sharada, Nepal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,845 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 15th largest in Karnali since 2016 (of 39 with a page). Number 17 in Nepal in 2021, of 38.
- Burnt area
- 2,845ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 19 Apr 2021 – 20 Apr 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 19 Apr
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 133
- in a single hotspot: 87 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 29 Apr.
This area had burned before
62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,586 ha in 2016, 67 ha in 2018, 1,305 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,778 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Sharada where it started2,350 ha reached on 19 Apr12 %
-
445 ha reached on 19 Apr2.9 %
-
59 ha0.5 %
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 | 28.3 °C | 17 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 13 Apr | 28.4 °C | 20 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Apr | 30.2 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Apr | 28.8 °C | 23 % | 49 km/h | 1.3 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Apr | 28.3 °C | 23 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Apr | 26.9 °C | 27 % | 45 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Apr | 27.1 °C | 23 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 19 Apr | 27.7 °C | 20 % | 63 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 20 Apr | 29.8 °C | 14 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 21 Apr after | 22.8 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 22 Apr after | 22.0 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 5.1 mm | Very low 4 |
| 23 Apr after | 26.6 °C | 26 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 24 Apr after | 28.1 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Apr after | 27.6 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 26 Apr after | 30.0 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Apr after | 29.5 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Apr after | 30.7 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Apr after | 28.7 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 2.7 mm | Low 9 |
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.
Detections table · 133Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 19,256 haBabaiMarch 2021 · 26 days · 28 km away
- 43,780 haRapti SonariMarch 2016 · 26 days · 30 km away
- 7,873 haShiwalayaMarch 2021 · 7 days · 31 km away
- 36,223 haRapti SonariApril 2017 · 15 days · 32 km away
- 17,411 haRapti SonariApril 2026 · 19 days · 34 km away
- 7,091 haRapti Sonari9 May 2023 · 12 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sharada fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 April 2021 and 20 April 2021: 2 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 2,845 hectares (28.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sharada (2,350 ha, 12 %); Chhatreshwori (445 ha, 2.9 %); Tribeni (59 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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
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.