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Umsning fire, March 2019 Umsning, Donka, Umling

Out · last measured on 19 Mar 2019

The fire started on 8 March 2019 in Umsning, India, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,146 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Meghālaya since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 17 in India in 2019, of 28.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
7,146ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
8 Mar 2019 – 19 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
4
subdistricts
Started on
8 Mar
2019
Danger at start
9
Low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
60km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,811 ha in 2016, 4,842 ha in 2017, 3,784 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,540 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Umsning where it started
    4,294 ha
    5.2 %
  2. Donka
    1,973 ha
    0.6 %
  3. Umling
    878 ha
    1.3 %
  4. Sonapur
    37 ha
    0.1 %

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)
8 Mar 25.0 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
9 Mar 24.4 °C 43 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
10 Mar 24.4 °C 53 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Low 10
11 Mar 26.2 °C 51 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
12 Mar 26.8 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
13 Mar 28.8 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
14 Mar 29.7 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
15 Mar 32.2 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
16 Mar 32.7 °C 27 % 60 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
17 Mar 30.9 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
18 Mar 29.1 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
19 Mar 27.2 °C 33 % 28 km/h 3.4 mm Very low 3
20 Mar after 28.2 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
21 Mar after 29.8 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
22 Mar after 28.5 °C 46 % 42 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 12
23 Mar after 29.3 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
24 Mar after 28.9 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
25 Mar after 30.4 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
26 Mar after 29.9 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 17
27 Mar after 29.6 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
28 Mar after 30.1 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
29 Mar after 31.4 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Mar 2019
After · 26 Mar 2019

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Umsning fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 March 2019 and 19 March 2019: 12 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 7,146 hectares (71.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Umsning (4,294 ha, 5.2 %); Donka (1,973 ha, 0.6 %); Umling (878 ha, 1.3 %); Sonapur (37 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of India (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
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.

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 (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.