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Simta fire, April 2021 Simta

Out · last detection 12 Apr 2021, 07:42 UTC

The fire started on 8 April 2021 in Simta, Nepal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,282 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 27th largest in Karnali since 2016 (of 39 with a page). Number 26 in Nepal in 2021, of 38.

Burnt area
2,282ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
8 Apr 2021 – 12 Apr 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
8 Apr
2021
Heat detections
122
in a single hotspot: 60 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
927MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Apr 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Apr12 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

891012

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
52km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.5 mm on 21 Apr.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 140 ha in 2016, 38 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 140 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Simta where it started
    2,289 ha reached on 1 Apr
    9.4 %

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)
1 Apr 24.8 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Apr 26.2 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Apr 26.1 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Apr 26.7 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Apr 27.0 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Apr 27.9 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Apr 28.2 °C 31 % 35 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 19
8 Apr 27.8 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Apr 28.4 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Apr 28.5 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Apr 29.0 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Apr 29.2 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
13 Apr after 29.6 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Apr after 31.1 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Apr after 29.8 °C 22 % 52 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 41
16 Apr after 29.7 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Apr after 27.0 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
18 Apr after 27.7 °C 22 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Apr after 28.6 °C 21 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Apr after 30.7 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 39
21 Apr after 22.8 °C 44 % 30 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Apr 2021
After · 19 Apr 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 · 122Every 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 8 April 2021 and 12 April 2021: 5 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 2,282 hectares (22.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Simta (2,289 ha, 9.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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
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 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.