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Ulytauskiy fire, August 2016 Ulytauskiy, Zhanaarkinskiy

Out · last detection 18 Aug 2016, 22:21 UTC

The fire started on 11 August 2016 in Ulytauskiy, Kazakhstan, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,089 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Karaganda Region since 2016 (of 222 with a page). Number 3 in Kazakhstan in 2016, of 36.

Burnt area
11,089ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
11 Aug 2016 – 18 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
11 Aug
2016
Heat detections
410
in a single hotspot: 203 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
8.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Aug18 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
53km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 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.

What happened to each town

  1. Ulytauskiy where it started
    10,096 ha reached on 11 Aug
    0.1 %
  2. Zhanaarkinskiy
    930 ha reached on 14 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
11 Aug 30.8 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Aug 30.7 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Aug 30.0 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Aug 31.1 °C 18 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
15 Aug 31.4 °C 17 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 Aug 29.4 °C 20 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Aug 30.6 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 51
18 Aug 31.3 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Aug after 31.7 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Aug after 32.9 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Aug after 26.8 °C 21 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Aug after 24.6 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Aug after 24.8 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Aug after 27.6 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Aug after 30.3 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 51
26 Aug after 30.7 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Aug after 31.9 °C 21 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Aug after 33.6 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Aug 2016
After · 25 Aug 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 · 410Every 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 Kazakhstan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ulytauskiy fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 August 2016 and 18 August 2016: 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 11,089 hectares (110.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ulytauskiy (10,096 ha, 0.1 %); Zhanaarkinskiy (930 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Kazakhstan (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
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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.

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.