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Talitsky District fire, 5 May 2023 Baykalovsky District, Talitsky District, Irbitsky District

Out · last detection 18 May 2023, 08:30 UTC

The fire started on 5 May 2023 in Talitsky District, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,588 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Sverdlovsk Oblast since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 99 in Russia in 2023, of 450.

Burnt area
10,588ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
5 May 2023 – 18 May 2023
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
5 May
2023
Heat detections
619
in a single hotspot: 62 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Average daily power
331MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 May18 May
18 May 2023

How it evolved, day by day

5 May 2023 · 2 MW · 2 6 May 2023 · 296 MW · 56 7 May 2023 · 654 MW · 63 8 May 2023 · 517 MW · 65 9 May 2023 · 376 MW · 79 10 May 2023 · 1,224 MW · 119 11 May 2023 · 40 MW · 7 12 May 2023 · 566 MW · 75 13 May 2023 · 213 MW · 42 14 May 2023 · 145 MW · 30 15 May 2023 · 93 MW · 17 16 May 2023 · 337 MW · 35 17 May 2023 · 74 MW · 12 18 May 2023 · 100 MW · 17
5 May 10 May 14 May 17 May

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
70km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days 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.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 6.7% of the area of London (106 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. 8,442 ha reached on 6 May
    3.6 %
  2. Talitsky District where it started
    2,062 ha reached on 5 May
    0.5 %
  3. 31 ha reached on 6 May
    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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)

Started with Very dry air: 5.9 % of the area in Russia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
5 May 24.2 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 May 26.1 °C 4 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 May 25.6 °C 15 % 70 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 May 11.4 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 May 12.2 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
10 May 17.0 °C 7 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
11 May 14.2 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
12 May 15.7 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
13 May 15.2 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 May 17.3 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 May 19.8 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
16 May 21.1 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
17 May 18.8 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
18 May 18.9 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 May after 20.0 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 May after 23.6 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 May after 25.1 °C 10 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 May after 26.9 °C 9 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 May after 27.9 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 May after 29.0 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 May after 27.1 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
26 May after 26.8 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 May after 28.9 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
28 May after 29.9 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 28.1, a minimum humidity of 11% and 4 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2017: 15.

FWI at the start 28.1
Minimum humidity 11 %
Days without rain 4
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

городской округ Богданович fire, May 2021
7,059 ha 18 days FWI 33.5 Min. humidity 13 % 86 km away, in 2021

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.4 mm on 31 May.

What happened to them

8 days
median duration
5,008 ha
median area
0 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 11 of 15 had it)

It was 2.1 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 14 days, against 8 days.

None of its 15 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. In 4 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
70km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 18 May, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 11 of 15, with a median of 2.7 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 2017.
  • 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 · 28 Apr 2023
After · 25 May 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 11 May 2023 the air beside the fire reached 81 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak81 µg/m³
Days over the guideline7 days
PM10116 µg/m³
Optical depth1.11
3 May7 May11 May15 May19 May
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)

Detections table · 619Every 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 Talitsky District fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 May 2023 and 18 May 2023: 14 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 10,588 hectares (105.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Baykalovsky District (8,442 ha, 3.6 %); Talitsky District (2,062 ha, 0.5 %); Irbitsky District (31 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.1 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 70 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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 2017 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 15. Their median duration was 8 days and their median area 5,008 ha; 0 % went past 10,000 ha. None of its 15 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. In 4 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 619 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 2025, 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.