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Srednekolymsky Ulus fire, 17 June 2020 Srednekolymsky Ulus

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

The fire started on 17 June 2020 in Srednekolymsky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,429 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 415th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1347 with a page). Number 134 in Russia in 2020, of 592.

Burnt area
11,429ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
17 Jun 2020 – 2 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
17 Jun
2020
Heat detections
1,717
in a single hotspot: 363 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Average daily power
1.9GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jun2 Jul
2 Jul 2020

How it evolved, day by day

17 Jun 2020 · 52 MW · 6 18 Jun 2020 · 117 MW · 15 19 Jun 2020 · 79 MW · 12 20 Jun 2020 · 497 MW · 35 21 Jun 2020 · 4,919 MW · 101 22 Jun 2020 · 951 MW · 102 23 Jun 2020 · 3,412 MW · 204 24 Jun 2020 · 1,917 MW · 174 25 Jun 2020 · 1,878 MW · 102 26 Jun 2020 · 4,936 MW · 226 27 Jun 2020 · 2,047 MW · 190 28 Jun 2020 · 891 MW · 92 29 Jun 2020 · 333 MW · 34 30 Jun 2020 · 3,852 MW · 195 1 Jul 2020 · 2,295 MW · 156 2 Jul 2020 · 1,822 MW · 73
17 Jun 21 Jun 26 Jun 29 Jun

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
51km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 11.6 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 7.2% of the area of London (114 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
    11,384 ha reached on 17 Jun
    0.1 %

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)
17 Jun 30.2 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
18 Jun 31.0 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Jun 31.5 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jun 31.6 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Jun 33.2 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Jun 30.5 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Jun 20.8 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Jun 23.3 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Jun 26.6 °C 33 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
26 Jun 23.5 °C 45 % 43 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 15
27 Jun 18.5 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
28 Jun 16.2 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
29 Jun 14.8 °C 48 % 27 km/h 1.0 mm Low 10
30 Jun 15.9 °C 47 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
1 Jul 17.3 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
2 Jul 15.1 °C 53 % 51 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
3 Jul after 7.7 °C 79 % 41 km/h 11.6 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 24.8, a minimum humidity of 26% and 10 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2019: 19.

FWI at the start 24.8
Minimum humidity 26 %
Days without rain 10
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Srednekolymsky Ulus fire, June 2019
7,517 ha 11 days FWI 27.0 Min. humidity 25 % 70 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.8 mm on 4 Jul.

What happened to them

7 days
median duration
5,421 ha
median area
21 %
went past 10,000 ha
4.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 19 of 19 had it)

It was 2.1 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 16 days, against 7 days.

Only 3 of its 19 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. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 4.0 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

11.6 mmfirst rain
3 Julthe day after it ended
51km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 2 Jul, and on 3 Jul 11.6 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 19 of 19, with a median of 4.0 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 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 · 10 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 · 1,717Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 June 2020 to 2 July 2020 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 June 2020 to 2 July 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,429 hectares (114.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Srednekolymsky Ulus (11,384 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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: 19. Their median duration was 7 days and their median area 5,421 ha; 21 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 3 of its 19 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. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 4.0 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 18 June 2020 → 17 June 2020.

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
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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 June 2020 to 2 July 2020. 1,717 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.