Tomponsky Ulus fire, 16 August 2020 Tomponsky Ulus
The fire started on 16 August 2020 in Tomponsky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,225 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 330th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1422 with a page). Number 84 in Russia in 2020, of 594.
- Burnt area
- 16,225ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 16 Aug 2020 – 23 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 1,427
- in a single hotspot: 141 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 9.4GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.5 mm on 24 Aug.
This area had burned before
2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 275 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Tomponsky Ulus where it started15,740 ha reached on 16 Aug0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Aug | 25.6 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 10 Aug | 20.0 °C | 62 % | 30 km/h | 4.4 mm | Very low 1 |
| 11 Aug | 19.6 °C | 43 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 5 |
| 12 Aug | 19.5 °C | 40 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 13 Aug | 14.5 °C | 40 % | 43 km/h | 3.1 mm | Very low 4 |
| 14 Aug | 15.3 °C | 43 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 15 Aug | 18.1 °C | 31 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 16 Aug | 18.7 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 Aug | 18.0 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 18 Aug | 19.1 °C | 35 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 19 Aug | 18.7 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 20 Aug | 18.2 °C | 37 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 21 Aug | 18.9 °C | 31 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Aug | 17.2 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 23 Aug | 16.4 °C | 26 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 24 Aug after | 7.4 °C | 50 % | 30 km/h | 14.5 mm | Very low 0 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 1,427Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 21,420 haTomponsky Ulus22 June 2019 · 10 days · 14 km away
- 9,987 haTomponsky Ulus22 June 2022 · 6 days · 17 km away
- 18,791 haTomponsky Ulus9 July 2020 · 10 days · 20 km away
- 11,677 haTomponsky Ulus14 September 2020 · 13 days · 20 km away
- 19,125 haTomponsky Ulus14 September 2020 · 13 days · 28 km away
- 6,353 haTomponsky Ulus29 July 2020 · 12 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Tomponsky Ulus fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2020 and 23 August 2020: 8 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 16,225 hectares (162.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Tomponsky Ulus (15,740 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 25.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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.
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
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.