Skip to content
worldfires
RU · Russia · –

Sretensky District fire, 8 May 2016 Sretensky District

Out · last detection 27 May 2016, 04:21 UTC

The fire started on 8 May 2016 in Sretensky District, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,534 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 146th largest in Zabaykalsky Krai since 2016 (of 465 with a page). Number 246 in Russia in 2016, of 692.

Burnt area
8,534ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
8 May 2016 – 27 May 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
8 May
2016
Heat detections
600
in a single hotspot: 85 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
309MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 May27 May
27 May 2016

How it evolved, day by day

8 May 2016 · 13 MW · 3 9 May 2016 · 114 MW · 11 10 May 2016 · 4 MW · 3 11 May 2016 · 104 MW · 11 13 May 2016 · 17 MW · 5 14 May 2016 · 23 MW · 12 15 May 2016 · 595 MW · 44 16 May 2016 · 369 MW · 56 17 May 2016 · 820 MW · 124 18 May 2016 · 909 MW · 93 19 May 2016 · 497 MW · 57 21 May 2016 · 30 MW · 17 22 May 2016 · 716 MW · 64 23 May 2016 · 534 MW · 66 24 May 2016 · 185 MW · 32 27 May 2016 · 8 MW · 2
8 May 13 May 18 May 22 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

27°high
55km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 20.9 mm on 28 May.

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 5.4% of the area of London (85 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. Sretensky District where it started
    8,602 ha reached on 8 May
    0.5 %

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 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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)
8 May 19.9 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
9 May 22.6 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 May 21.7 °C 22 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 May 12.0 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 May 9.1 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
13 May 14.2 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 May 13.0 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
15 May 19.0 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 May 26.4 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 May 26.6 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 May 23.7 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 May 24.4 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
20 May 13.5 °C 40 % 47 km/h 2.1 mm Low 7
21 May 18.7 °C 19 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 May 21.8 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 May 23.3 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 May 20.1 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 May 12.4 °C 41 % 40 km/h 2.7 mm Low 5
26 May 12.2 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
27 May 16.9 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
28 May after 7.4 °C 44 % 50 km/h 20.9 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 15.8, a minimum humidity of 15% and 7 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2017: 17.

FWI at the start 15.8
Minimum humidity 15 %
Days without rain 7
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Chernyshevsky District fire, April 2025
3,421 ha 12 days FWI 15.4 Min. humidity 16 % 58 km away, in 2025

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.5 mm on 26 Apr.

What happened to them

9 days
median duration
4,505 ha
median area
18 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 17 of 17 had it)

It was 1.9 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 20 days, against 9 days.

Only 4 of its 17 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 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

20.9 mmfirst rain
28 Maythe day after it ended
55km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 27 May, and on 28 May 20.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 17 of 17, 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 2017.
  • 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 · 1 May 2016
After · 3 Jun 2016

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 · 600Every 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 Sretensky District fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 May 2016 to 27 May 2016 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 May 2016 to 24 May 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,534 hectares (85.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Sretensky District (8,602 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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 2017 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 17. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 4,505 ha; 18 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 4 of its 17 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 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 24 May 2016 → 27 May 2016.

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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 8 May 2016 to 24 May 2016. 600 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 2015, 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.