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Sidhaw fire, March 2016 Sidhaw, Ramnagar

Out · last detection 28 Mar 2016, 20:27 UTC

The fire started on 21 March 2016 in Sidhaw, India, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,743 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in Bihār since 2016 (of 14 with a page). Number 28 in India in 2016, of 47.

Burnt area
6,743ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
21 Mar 2016 – 28 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
21 Mar
2016
Heat detections
297
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
2
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
939MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Mar28 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

21222324252628

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
66km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Sidhaw where it started
    6,688 ha reached on 18 Mar
    8.0 %
  2. Ramnagar
    84 ha reached on 23 Mar
    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)
14 Mar 27.4 °C 52 % 30 km/h 9.6 mm Very low 2
15 Mar 30.2 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
16 Mar 31.5 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Mar 30.8 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
18 Mar 33.3 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
19 Mar 35.7 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Mar 36.1 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
21 Mar 36.0 °C 13 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Mar 32.5 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Mar 33.1 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Mar 34.3 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Mar 35.1 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Mar 36.2 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Mar 35.4 °C 31 % 32 km/h 1.7 mm High 22
28 Mar 33.7 °C 19 % 50 km/h 2.0 mm High 31
29 Mar after 34.6 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Mar after 35.3 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Mar after 32.9 °C 41 % 34 km/h 2.3 mm Moderate 13
1 Apr after 32.7 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Apr after 32.0 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Apr after 32.1 °C 47 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
4 Apr after 32.7 °C 49 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
5 Apr after 39.2 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Apr after 41.2 °C 13 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
7 Apr after 40.5 °C 16 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
8 Apr after 40.2 °C 11 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
9 Apr after 40.9 °C 9 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
10 Apr after 41.7 °C 9 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
11 Apr after 42.1 °C 12 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
12 Apr after 38.4 °C 16 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
13 Apr after 38.7 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Mar 2016
After · 4 Apr 2016

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 · 297Every 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 Sidhaw fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 March 2016 and 28 March 2016: 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 6,743 hectares (67.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sidhaw (6,688 ha, 8.0 %); Ramnagar (84 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 66 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.