Burned area
satellite only40,947ha
Union of 5 GWIS (Copernicus) perimeters: overlapping areas count once.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 5 May 2023 – 17 May 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
RU · Russia · –
Sorokinsky District fire, 5 May 2023 Sorokinsky District, Aromashevsky District, Ishimsky District
Out · last detection 18 May 2023, 06:50 UTC
The fire started on 5 May 2023 in Sorokinsky District, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 40,947 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 4th largest in Tyumen Oblast since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 11 in Russia in 2023, of 450.
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-25matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only13days
5 May 2023 to 17 May 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 18 May 2023, 06:50 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only5 May 2023
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 5 May 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only3,442
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 281 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 5 May 2023 – 17 May 2023
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only11,054MW
Total radiative power on 8 May 2023; hotspots that day: 657.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 8 May 2023
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model32.0FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 11.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 5 May 2023, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model28.4°C · 10% RH
High of 28.4 °C and minimum humidity of 10% on 7 May 2023; gusts of 53 km/h on 7 May 2023.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 5 May 2023 – 17 May 2023
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 30people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 0.27 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2025).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
logLast day with fire: 15 May 2023 → 17 May 2023.
-
logStart date: 6 May 2023 → 5 May 2023.
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 25 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 41,063 ha
- Dates
- 5 May 2023 – 17 May 2023
- Name
- Sorokinsky District
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/sorokinsky-district-2023-05-2?v=2026-10-25A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire sorokinsky-district-2023-05-2.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-05-05 | 402 | 6,048 | 25 | 9 | 11 | 20.3 | 41.8 | 0 | 32 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-05-06 | 461 | 4,860 | 26 | 6.7 | 8 | 18.2 | 38.5 | 0 | 32.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-05-07 | 660 | 8,920 | 28.4 | 9.7 | 10 | 27.4 | 52.9 | 0 | 42.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-05-08 | 657 | 11,054 | 20 | 6.4 | 21 | 23.8 | 45.4 | 0 | 34.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-05-09 | 332 | 3,802 | 10.2 | -0.9 | 25 | 15.8 | 37.4 | 0 | 24 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-05-10 | 147 | 1,516 | 14.3 | -3.1 | 19 | 10.4 | 23.4 | 0 | 21.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-05-11 | 293 | 4,174 | 16.6 | 1.7 | 22 | 24 | 43.9 | 0 | 30.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-05-12 | 283 | 6,850 | 11.9 | -0.3 | 25 | 14.3 | 28.4 | 0 | 22.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-05-13 | 2 | 8 | 12.8 | 2.1 | 22 | 20.9 | 43.9 | 0 | 27.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-05-14 | 28 | 417 | 17.1 | 0.8 | 23 | 18.2 | 34.9 | 0 | 26.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-05-15 | 29 | 282 | 16.8 | 3.9 | 29 | 17.7 | 38.2 | 0 | 25.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-05-16 | 65 | 207 | 18.9 | 5.5 | 25 | 21.9 | 45.7 | 0 | 28.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-05-17 | 78 | 1,027 | 14.6 | 1.6 | 26 | 14.6 | 33.1 | 0 | 24.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-05-18 | 5 | 15 | 15.3 | 2.9 | 23 | 19.9 | 41 | 0 | 28.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-05-19 | 0 | 0 | 19.8 | 2.4 | 16 | 14.9 | 34.2 | 0 | 28.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-05-20 | 0 | 0 | 22.8 | 2.6 | 20 | 15.8 | 34.9 | 0 | 29.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-05-21 | 0 | 0 | 24.5 | 8.2 | 18 | 10.4 | 25.2 | 0 | 27.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-05-22 | 0 | 0 | 25.7 | 6.6 | 19 | 10.6 | 24.8 | 0 | 28.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-05-23 | 0 | 0 | 25.8 | 8 | 21 | 15.5 | 28.8 | 0 | 32.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-05-24 | 0 | 0 | 26.7 | 7.1 | 21 | 8.9 | 23.8 | 0 | 28.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-05-25 | 0 | 0 | 21.6 | 12.2 | 36 | 21.8 | 43.2 | 1.1 | 21.2 | moderado | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 40,947ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 5 May 2023 – 17 May 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- districts
- Started on
- 5 May
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 3,442
- in a single hotspot: 281 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 3.5GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
5 May17 May
18 May 2023
How it evolved, day by day
5 May
8 May
11 May
14 May
17 May
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
28°high
53km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity
It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 25 May.
This area had burned before
52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13,547 ha in 2021, 13,331 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 21,437 ha that had burned before.
- 7,880 ha Ishimsky District fire, May 2022 29,775 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,624 ha Sorokinsky District fire, April 2021 63,894 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,206 ha Sorokinsky District fire, April 2021 22,340 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,338 ha Sorokinsky District fire, May 2022 3,694 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 938 ha Aromashevsky District fire, May 2022 5,284 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 739 ha Ishimsky District fire, April 2022 5,446 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Moscow boundary: geoBoundaries · OpenStreetMap, Wambacher · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Sorokinsky District where it started23,419 ha reached on 5 May8.7 %
-
7,830 ha reached on 7 May2.3 %
-
7,681 ha reached on 5 May1.4 %
-
2,056 ha reached on 10 May0.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area0.27 ha
Residents≈ 30
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.27 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with Very dry air: 5.9 % of the area in Russia
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 May | 25.0 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 May | 26.0 °C | 8 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 7 May | 28.4 °C | 10 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 8 May | 20.0 °C | 21 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 May | 10.2 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 10 May | 14.3 °C | 19 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 11 May | 16.6 °C | 22 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 12 May | 11.9 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 13 May | 12.8 °C | 22 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 14 May | 17.1 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 15 May | 16.8 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 16 May | 18.9 °C | 25 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 17 May | 14.6 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 18 May after | 15.3 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 19 May after | 19.8 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 20 May after | 22.8 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 May after | 24.5 °C | 18 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 22 May after | 25.7 °C | 19 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 23 May after | 25.8 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 24 May after | 26.7 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 25 May after | 21.6 °C | 36 % | 43 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 32.0, a minimum humidity of 11% and 11 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2018: 23.
FWI at the start
32.0
Minimum humidity
11 %
Days without rain
11
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Sorokinsky District fire, 5 May 2023
40,947 ha
13 days
FWI 32.0
Min. humidity 11 %
Aromashevsky District fire, May 2022
5,284 ha
1 day
FWI 33.6
Min. humidity 14 %
21 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 14 May.
Vagaysky District fire, May 2021
4,370 ha
17 days
FWI 34.6
Min. humidity 15 %
77 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Ishimsky District fire, May 2021
10,156 ha
12 days
FWI 25.9
Min. humidity 9 %
67 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.8 mm on 26 May.
Yarkovsky District fire, May 2021
8,934 ha
17 days
FWI 30.7
Min. humidity 14 %
198 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.2 mm on 31 May.
Tobolsky District fire, May 2021
4,380 ha
8 days
FWI 30.1
Min. humidity 17 %
148 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.9 mm on 18 May.
What happened to them
- 7 days
- median duration
- 5,446 ha
- median area
- 26 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 3.0 mm
- rain at the end (median; 20 of 23 had it)
It was 7.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 13 days, against 7 days.
None of its 23 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 3 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.0 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
1.1 mmfirst rain
25 May8 days after it ended
53km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 17 May, and on 25 May 1.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 20 of 23, with a median of 3.0 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2018.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 28 Apr 2023
After · 24 May 2023
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · CopernicusOn 13 May 2023 the air beside the fire reached 188 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 112: 7.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak188 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10269 µg/m³
Optical depth2.30
WHO 15
4 May7 May10 May13 May16 May
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)
Detections table · 3,442Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 29,775 haIshimsky DistrictMay 2022 · 9 days · 15 km away
- 7,937 haIshimsky District16 April 2021 · 6 days · 17 km away
- 63,894 haSorokinsky District15 April 2021 · 13 days · 19 km away
- 6,903 haAromashevsky District10 May 2023 · 7 days · 19 km away
- 5,284 haAromashevsky DistrictMay 2022 · 1 day · 21 km away
- 5,446 haIshimsky DistrictApril 2022 · 1 day · 23 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sorokinsky District fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 May 2023 to 17 May 2023 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 May 2023 to 15 May 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 40,947 hectares (409.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Sorokinsky District (23,419 ha, 8.7 %); Aromashevsky District (7,830 ha, 2.3 %); Ishimsky District (7,681 ha, 1.4 %); Vikulovsky District (2,056 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.4 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Russia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2018 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 23. Their median duration was 7 days and their median area 5,446 ha; 26 % went past 10,000 ha. None of its 23 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 3 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.0 mm.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 15 May 2023 → 17 May 2023.
- Start date: 6 May 2023 → 5 May 2023.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 6 May 2023 to 15 May 2023. 3,442 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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 (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.