Skip to content
worldfires
NP · Nepal · →

Sunwal fire, April 2016 Sunwal, Devdaha, Mathagadhi

Out · last detection 13 Apr 2016, 20:27 UTC

The fire started on 6 April 2016 in Sunwal, Nepal, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,973 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in Lumbini since 2016 (of 49 with a page). Number 6 in Nepal in 2016, of 47.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.4 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
6,973ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
6 Apr 2016 – 12 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
6 Apr
2016
Heat detections
328
in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Apr12 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

678910111213

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
56km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Sunwal where it started
    2,612 ha reached on 30 Mar
    15 %
  2. Devdaha
    1,817 ha reached on 3 Apr
    13 %
  3. Mathagadhi
    1,464 ha reached on 30 Mar
    6.8 %
  4. Binayee Tribeni
    1,109 ha reached on 6 Apr
    3.8 %

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)
30 Mar 29.3 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 14
31 Mar 26.9 °C 50 % 29 km/h 7.6 mm Very low 1
1 Apr 27.1 °C 47 % 24 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 4
2 Apr 25.2 °C 57 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm Low 6
3 Apr 25.2 °C 63 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm Low 6
4 Apr 25.9 °C 65 % 20 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 2
5 Apr 32.8 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
6 Apr 34.7 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
7 Apr 33.8 °C 21 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Apr 33.8 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Apr 34.4 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Apr 35.5 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Apr 36.0 °C 17 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Apr 32.5 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Apr after 32.3 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Apr after 33.2 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Apr after 33.9 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Apr after 31.4 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Apr after 29.3 °C 48 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
18 Apr after 30.7 °C 47 % 34 km/h 4.3 mm Very low 5
19 Apr after 33.3 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
20 Apr after 36.2 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Apr after 34.7 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Apr after 34.6 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Apr after 34.4 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Apr after 34.1 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Apr after 34.2 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Apr after 35.1 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Apr after 35.5 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Apr after 36.0 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Apr after 35.9 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Mar 2016
After · 19 Apr 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 · 328Every 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 Nepal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sunwal fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 April 2016 and 12 April 2016: 7 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 6,973 hectares (69.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Sunwal (2,612 ha, 15 %); Devdaha (1,817 ha, 13 %); Mathagadhi (1,464 ha, 6.8 %); Binayee Tribeni (1,109 ha, 3.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Nepal (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: 101

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 101.

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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License). 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.