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Simta fire, 18 March 2021 Simta, Gurbhakot

Out · last detection 24 Mar 2021, 19:23 UTC

The fire started on 18 March 2021 in Simta, Nepal, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,931 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Karnali since 2016 (of 39 with a page). Number 15 in Nepal in 2021, of 38.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,931ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
18 Mar 2021 – 24 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
18 Mar
2021
Heat detections
119
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
409MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Mar 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Mar24 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
42km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 7 Apr.

This area had burned before

85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,972 ha in 2016, 147 ha in 2017, 157 ha in 2018, 1,334 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,493 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Simta where it started
    2,664 ha reached on 18 Mar
    11 %
  2. Gurbhakot
    276 ha reached on 16 Mar
    1.2 %

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)
15 Mar 25.9 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
16 Mar 27.4 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
17 Mar 27.5 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 17
18 Mar 27.7 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
19 Mar 28.4 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Mar 27.1 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 22
21 Mar 28.3 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
22 Mar 30.1 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
23 Mar 29.7 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
24 Mar 26.7 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 20
25 Mar after 27.3 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
26 Mar after 28.6 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
27 Mar after 28.4 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Mar after 27.4 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Mar after 29.0 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
30 Mar after 31.3 °C 23 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Mar after 27.7 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
1 Apr after 26.8 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Apr after 28.2 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Apr after 28.1 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Apr after 28.7 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Apr after 29.0 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Apr after 29.9 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Apr after 30.2 °C 31 % 35 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Mar 2021
After · 31 Mar 2021

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 · 119Every 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 Nepal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Simta fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 March 2021 and 24 March 2021: 7 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 2,931 hectares (29.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Simta (2,664 ha, 11 %); Gurbhakot (276 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.1 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, class 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.

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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 101.

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.