Skip to content
worldfires
RU · Russia · –

Suntarsky Ulus fire, 7 July 2021 Suntarsky Ulus

Out · last detection 21 Jul 2021, 04:54 UTC

The fire started on 7 July 2021 in Suntarsky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,183 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 652th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1347 with a page). Number 258 in Russia in 2021, of 581.

Compare with…
Burnt area
7,183ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
7 Jul 2021 – 21 Jul 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
7 Jul
2021
Heat detections
830
in a single hotspot: 160 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Average daily power
501MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Jul21 Jul
21 Jul 2021

How it evolved, day by day

7 Jul 2021 · 100 MW · 16 8 Jul 2021 · 224 MW · 32 10 Jul 2021 · 24 MW · 8 11 Jul 2021 · 58 MW · 37 12 Jul 2021 · 294 MW · 53 13 Jul 2021 · 483 MW · 62 14 Jul 2021 · 413 MW · 86 15 Jul 2021 · 1 MW · 1 16 Jul 2021 · 640 MW · 170 17 Jul 2021 · 2,003 MW · 194 18 Jul 2021 · 1,637 MW · 145 21 Jul 2021 · 134 MW · 26
7 Jul 11 Jul 14 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

33°high
60km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 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 4.5% of the area of London (72 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
    7,066 ha reached on 7 Jul
    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)
7 Jul 33.2 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Jul 31.3 °C 36 % 50 km/h 1.6 mm High 36
9 Jul 21.6 °C 52 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
10 Jul 17.9 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
11 Jul 23.1 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
12 Jul 26.4 °C 31 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
13 Jul 28.0 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
14 Jul 29.8 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Jul 19.7 °C 52 % 43 km/h 1.8 mm High 29
16 Jul 23.9 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
17 Jul 28.6 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Jul 30.1 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Jul 24.4 °C 40 % 30 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 5
20 Jul 21.8 °C 56 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
21 Jul 26.3 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
22 Jul after 26.6 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
23 Jul after 20.3 °C 66 % 41 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 19

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 31.7, a minimum humidity of 24% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 27.

FWI at the start 31.7
Minimum humidity 24 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Olyokminsky Ulus fire, June 2018
12,942 ha 27 days FWI 30.6 Min. humidity 24 % 232 km away, in 2018

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 8.5 mm on 4 Jul.

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
4,202 ha
median area
15 %
went past 10,000 ha
4.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 27 of 27 had it)

It was 1.7 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 15 days, against 10 days.

Only 9 of its 27 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 4.2 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

1.9 mmfirst rain
23 Jul2 days after it ended
60km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 21 Jul, and on 23 Jul 1.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 27 of 27, with a median of 4.2 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 · 30 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 · 830Every 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

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 7 July 2021 to 21 July 2021 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 July 2021 to 21 July 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,183 hectares (71.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Suntarsky Ulus (7,066 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 27. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 4,202 ha; 15 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 9 of its 27 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 4.2 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: 10 July 2021 → 7 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 10 July 2021 to 21 July 2021. 830 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.