Stepanavan fire, 31 January 2025 Stepanavan, Tashir
The fire started on 31 January 2025 in Stepanavan, Armenia, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 379 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 19th largest in Lori since 2016 (of 24 with a page). Number 26 in Armenia in 2025, of 40.
The power measured by the satellite is low (9.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 379ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 31 Jan 2025 – 31 Jan 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 31 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 8
- in a single hotspot: 10 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 45MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 5 Feb.
This area had burned before
79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 107 ha in 2017, 246 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 301 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Stepanavan where it started337 ha reached on 31 Jan0.6 %
-
42 ha reached on 31 Jan0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Jan | 6.5 °C | 35 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 1 Feb after | 6.8 °C | 34 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 2 Feb after | 6.3 °C | 34 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 3 Feb after | 5.0 °C | 41 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 4 Feb after | 5.5 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 5 Feb after | 2.5 °C | 63 % | 29 km/h | 1.5 mm | Very low 0 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 31 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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 · 8Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,166 haStepanavan24 December 2019 · 1 day · 5 km away
- 1,700 haStepanavanNovember 2025 · 2 days · 11 km away
- 4,534 haSpitak22 November 2025 · 9 days · 15 km away
- 854 haSpitakOctober 2017 · 5 days · 18 km away
- 1,530 haBolnisiDecember 2019 · 9 days · 21 km away
- 974 haAshotckNovember 2025 · 3 days · 22 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Stepanavan fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 January 2025 and 31 January 2025: 1 day 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 379 hectares (3.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Stepanavan (337 ha, 0.6 %); Tashir (42 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 6.5 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 16 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 3, class Very low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Armenia (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: 911 · 112
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
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 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.