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Umsning fire, March 2022 Umsning, Donka

Out · last measured on 22 Mar 2022

The fire started on 12 March 2022 in Umsning, India, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,156 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Meghālaya since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 8 in India in 2022, 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
10,156ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
12 Mar 2022 – 22 Mar 2022
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
12 Mar
2022
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
32km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 25 Mar.

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,299 ha in 2016, 7,943 ha in 2017, 4,407 ha in 2018, 7,006 ha in 2019, 5,757 ha in 2020, 6,166 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,804 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Umsning where it started
    5,739 ha
    6.9 %
  2. Donka
    4,464 ha
    1.4 %

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)
12 Mar 30.8 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
13 Mar 31.4 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 Mar 32.6 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
15 Mar 32.4 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
16 Mar 32.4 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 Mar 32.7 °C 29 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
18 Mar 33.2 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Mar 32.7 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Mar 32.6 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Mar 33.4 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Mar 31.8 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
23 Mar after 33.4 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Mar after 32.0 °C 32 % 50 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
25 Mar after 27.9 °C 54 % 42 km/h 1.5 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Mar 2022
After · 29 Mar 2022

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 12 March 2022 and 22 March 2022: 11 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 10,156 hectares (101.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Umsning (5,739 ha, 6.9 %); Donka (4,464 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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.

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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 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.