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Sukamara fire, September 2023 Sukamara

Out · last measured on 30 Sept 2023

The fire started on 20 September 2023 in Sukamara, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,502 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 315th largest in Central Kalimantan since 2016 (of 315 with a page). Number 168 in Indonesia in 2023, of 168.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
1,502ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
20 Sept 2023 – 30 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
20 Sept
2023
Danger at start
9
Low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

34°high
47km/h · peak gust
45%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.8 mm on 5 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Sukamara where it started
    1,512 ha
    0.5 %

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)
20 Sept 32.1 °C 59 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm Low 9
21 Sept 32.4 °C 55 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm Low 10
22 Sept 32.1 °C 52 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 12
23 Sept 32.8 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
24 Sept 32.4 °C 54 % 33 km/h 0.6 mm Low 11
25 Sept 33.0 °C 54 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 13
26 Sept 32.6 °C 47 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
27 Sept 32.1 °C 52 % 47 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
28 Sept 33.7 °C 52 % 41 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 14
29 Sept 33.6 °C 50 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 15
30 Sept 33.9 °C 45 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 18
1 Oct after 33.0 °C 45 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
2 Oct after 32.5 °C 51 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
3 Oct after 32.5 °C 53 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
4 Oct after 33.6 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
5 Oct after 34.0 °C 54 % 38 km/h 3.8 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Sept 2023
After · 7 Oct 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 27 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 143 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak143 µg/m³
Days over the guideline16 days
PM10208 µg/m³
Optical depth3.23
18192021222324252627282930123
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Indonesia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sukamara fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 September 2023 and 30 September 2023: 11 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 1,502 hectares (15.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Sukamara (1,512 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 45 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Indonesia (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: 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
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.

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.