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Srednekolymsky Ulus fire, 16 June 2020 Srednekolymsky Ulus

Out · last detection 2 Jul 2020, 03:14 UTC

The fire started on 16 June 2020 in Srednekolymsky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,811 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 206th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1347 with a page). Number 50 in Russia in 2020, of 592.

Burnt area
22,811ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
16 Jun 2020 – 2 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Jun
2020
Heat detections
2,829
in a single hotspot: 172 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
2.0GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jun2 Jul
2 Jul 2020

How it evolved, day by day

16 Jun 2020 · 293 MW · 32 17 Jun 2020 · 600 MW · 45 18 Jun 2020 · 402 MW · 47 19 Jun 2020 · 799 MW · 77 20 Jun 2020 · 1,219 MW · 102 21 Jun 2020 · 720 MW · 53 22 Jun 2020 · 3,280 MW · 207 23 Jun 2020 · 2,662 MW · 209 24 Jun 2020 · 873 MW · 111 25 Jun 2020 · 2,920 MW · 197 26 Jun 2020 · 4,002 MW · 323 27 Jun 2020 · 1,419 MW · 162 28 Jun 2020 · 1,719 MW · 202 29 Jun 2020 · 109 MW · 18 30 Jun 2020 · 2,751 MW · 305 1 Jul 2020 · 5,207 MW · 477 2 Jul 2020 · 4,474 MW · 262
16 Jun 20 Jun 24 Jun 28 Jun 1 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
49km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 11.4 mm on 3 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 14% of the area of London (228 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Srednekolymsky Ulus where it started
    23,681 ha reached on 16 Jun
    0.2 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
16 Jun 27.6 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
17 Jun 28.9 °C 32 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Jun 29.7 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
19 Jun 30.5 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Jun 30.1 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Jun 31.6 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Jun 28.0 °C 40 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
23 Jun 18.9 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Jun 21.7 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
25 Jun 25.7 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
26 Jun 21.1 °C 40 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Jun 16.2 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
28 Jun 15.7 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
29 Jun 14.6 °C 47 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
30 Jun 15.0 °C 48 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
1 Jul 17.2 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
2 Jul 15.7 °C 52 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Jul after 7.6 °C 74 % 48 km/h 11.4 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 13.4, a minimum humidity of 32% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2019: 22.

FWI at the start 13.4
Minimum humidity 32 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Srednekolymsky Ulus fire, June 2019
5,603 ha 7 days FWI 13.0 Min. humidity 36 % 194 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.8 mm on 28 Jun.

What happened to them

8 days
median duration
7,000 ha
median area
32 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 21 of 22 had it)

It was 3.3 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 17 days, against 8 days.

Only 3 of its 22 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 1 of 22, 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 3.5 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

11.4 mmfirst rain
3 Julthe day after it ended
49km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 2 Jul, and on 3 Jul 11.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 21 of 22, with a median of 3.5 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 2019.
  • 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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jun 2020
After · 9 Jul 2020

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 · 2,829Every 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 Russia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Srednekolymsky Ulus fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 June 2020 and 2 July 2020: 17 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 22,811 hectares (228.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Srednekolymsky Ulus (23,681 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class 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 2019 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 22. Their median duration was 8 days and their median area 7,000 ha; 32 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 3 of its 22 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 1 of 22, 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 3.5 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 2,829 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.