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Suntarsky Ulus fire, 25 June 2021 Suntarsky Ulus, Nyurbinsky Ulus

Out · last detection 21 Jul 2021, 04:55 UTC

The fire started on 25 June 2021 in Suntarsky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 38,340 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 100th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1347 with a page). Number 48 in Russia in 2021, of 581.

Burnt area
38,340ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
27days
25 Jun 2021 – 21 Jul 2021
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
25 Jun
2021
Heat detections
4,885
in a single hotspot: 376 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Average daily power
2.1GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jun21 Jul
21 Jul 2021

How it evolved, day by day

25 Jun 2021 · 3 MW · 1 26 Jun 2021 · 97 MW · 20 27 Jun 2021 · 311 MW · 25 29 Jun 2021 · 30 MW · 6 30 Jun 2021 · 15 MW · 4 1 Jul 2021 · 121 MW · 39 2 Jul 2021 · 439 MW · 89 3 Jul 2021 · 81 MW · 24 5 Jul 2021 · 57 MW · 10 6 Jul 2021 · 857 MW · 145 7 Jul 2021 · 3,597 MW · 310 8 Jul 2021 · 13,488 MW · 264 9 Jul 2021 · 672 MW · 43 10 Jul 2021 · 85 MW · 19 11 Jul 2021 · 359 MW · 160 12 Jul 2021 · 2,839 MW · 417 13 Jul 2021 · 5,092 MW · 549 14 Jul 2021 · 2,777 MW · 273 15 Jul 2021 · 1,482 MW · 433 16 Jul 2021 · 10,335 MW · 1212 17 Jul 2021 · 2,727 MW · 472 18 Jul 2021 · 2,050 MW · 368 21 Jul 2021 · 5 MW · 2
25 Jun 1 Jul 8 Jul 12 Jul 17 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

34°high
56km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.2 mm on 23 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 24% of the area of London (383 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. Suntarsky Ulus where it started
    37,711 ha reached on 25 Jun
    0.7 %
  2. 1,017 ha reached on 13 Jul
    0.0 %

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)
25 Jun 29.4 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
26 Jun 29.0 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.6 mm High 28
27 Jun 30.1 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Jun 27.5 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
29 Jun 28.3 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Jun 28.3 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Jul 32.1 °C 38 % 30 km/h 2.7 mm Low 8
2 Jul 34.1 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
3 Jul 27.8 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
4 Jul 25.7 °C 39 % 34 km/h 1.9 mm High 26
5 Jul 28.5 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
6 Jul 29.7 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Jul 34.3 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Jul 34.4 °C 26 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Jul 23.4 °C 44 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Jul 20.0 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Jul 23.0 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
12 Jul 26.8 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Jul 29.2 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Jul 29.6 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Jul 19.8 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.9 mm High 32
16 Jul 24.8 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Jul 29.9 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Jul 29.3 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jul 22.5 °C 51 % 35 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 14
20 Jul 20.8 °C 61 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
21 Jul 28.1 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Jul after 27.9 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
23 Jul after 23.5 °C 58 % 37 km/h 4.2 mm High 25

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 24.6, a minimum humidity of 30% and 1 day without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 31.

FWI at the start 24.6
Minimum humidity 30 %
Days without rain 1
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Nyurbinsky Ulus fire, July 2019
23,071 ha 15 days FWI 24.5 Min. humidity 30 % 32 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.8 mm on 31 Jul.

What happened to them

9 days
median duration
6,354 ha
median area
29 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.9 mm
rain at the end (median; 31 of 31 had it)

It was 6.0 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 27 days, against 9 days.

Only 2 of its 31 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 3.9 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

4.2 mmfirst rain
23 Jul2 days after it ended
56km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 21 Jul, and on 23 Jul 4.2 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 31 of 31, with a median of 3.9 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 2016.
  • 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 · 18 Jun 2021
After · 28 Jul 2021

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 · 4,885Every 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 Suntarsky Ulus fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 June 2021 to 21 July 2021 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 June 2021 to 18 July 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 38,340 hectares (383.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Suntarsky Ulus (37,711 ha, 0.7 %); Nyurbinsky Ulus (1,017 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very 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 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 31. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 6,354 ha; 29 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 2 of its 31 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 3.9 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: 18 July 2021 → 21 July 2021.

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 25 June 2021 to 18 July 2021. 4,885 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.