Umsning fire, April 2026 Umsning, Donka
The fire started on 2 April 2026 in Umsning, India, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,204 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 13th largest in Meghālaya since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 61 in India in 2026, of 65.
The power measured by the satellite is low (18.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 5,204ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 2 Apr 2026 – 6 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 2 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 70
- in a single hotspot: 19 MW
- Danger at start
- 0
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 468MW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 14 Apr.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,500 ha in 2016, 4,361 ha in 2017, 2,364 ha in 2018, 3,112 ha in 2019, 3,076 ha in 2020, 3,326 ha in 2021, 4,375 ha in 2022, 2,145 ha in 2023, 3,846 ha in 2024, 3,615 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,086 ha that had burned before.
- 3,846 ha Umsning fire, March 2022 10,156 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,608 ha Donka fire, March 2025 14,520 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,565 ha Donka fire, March 2024 10,780 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 409 ha Umsning fire, March 2019 7,146 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Umsning where it started4,048 ha reached on 2 Apr4.9 %
-
1,178 ha reached on 2 Apr0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Apr | 27.6 °C | 63 % | 54 km/h | 1.9 mm | Very low 0 |
| 3 Apr | 26.5 °C | 66 % | 35 km/h | 1.4 mm | Very low 0 |
| 4 Apr | 26.8 °C | 65 % | 32 km/h | 2.4 mm | Very low 0 |
| 5 Apr | 28.8 °C | 39 % | 57 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very low 4 |
| 6 Apr | 29.2 °C | 46 % | 39 km/h | 3.1 mm | Very low 1 |
| 7 Apr after | 26.4 °C | 53 % | 29 km/h | 2.1 mm | Very low 1 |
| 8 Apr after | 25.3 °C | 63 % | 32 km/h | 5.1 mm | Very low 0 |
| 9 Apr after | 23.2 °C | 72 % | 31 km/h | 10.6 mm | Very low 0 |
| 10 Apr after | 23.2 °C | 70 % | 42 km/h | 3.9 mm | Very low 0 |
| 11 Apr after | 25.5 °C | 57 % | 26 km/h | 0.7 mm | Very low 0 |
| 12 Apr after | 23.8 °C | 67 % | 31 km/h | 4.6 mm | Very low 0 |
| 13 Apr after | 24.5 °C | 67 % | 26 km/h | 3.6 mm | Very low 0 |
| 14 Apr after | 25.3 °C | 66 % | 34 km/h | 2.4 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 12 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 79 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 56: 3.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 70Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Umsning fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 April 2026 and 6 April 2026: 5 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 5,204 hectares (52.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Umsning (4,048 ha, 4.9 %); Donka (1,178 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.2 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 4, class Very low.
- 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
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.