Ust-Aldansky Ulus fire, 28 July 2021 Ust-Aldansky Ulus, Tattinsky Ulus
The fire started on 28 July 2021 in Ust-Aldansky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 85,685 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 41th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1422 with a page). Number 19 in Russia in 2021, of 581.
- Burnt area
- 85,685ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 28 Jul 2021 – 14 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Jul
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 18,022
- in a single hotspot: 2,351 MW
- Danger at start
- 6
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 362.2GW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.7 mm on 15 Aug.
This area had burned before
3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 590 ha in 2017, 1,299 ha in 2019, 723 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,487 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Ust-Aldansky Ulus where it started85,441 ha reached on 28 Jul4.6 %
-
513 ha reached on 7 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jul | 22.1 °C | 73 % | 23 km/h | 1.5 mm | Low 6 |
| 22 Jul | 23.2 °C | 59 % | 28 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 9 |
| 23 Jul | 26.5 °C | 42 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 24 Jul | 20.2 °C | 67 % | 20 km/h | 16.4 mm | Very low 0 |
| 25 Jul | 24.0 °C | 43 % | 42 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 4 |
| 26 Jul | 28.2 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 27 Jul | 29.6 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Jul | 23.5 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 29 Jul | 22.8 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Jul | 24.0 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 31 Jul | 26.5 °C | 23 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 1 Aug | 31.2 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 2 Aug | 29.6 °C | 14 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Aug | 28.1 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 4 Aug | 28.6 °C | 24 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 5 Aug | 27.6 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 6 Aug | 26.9 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Aug | 26.9 °C | 24 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Aug | 26.2 °C | 17 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Aug | 28.6 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 10 Aug | 30.0 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 11 Aug | 30.8 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 12 Aug | 24.1 °C | 56 % | 31 km/h | 2.1 mm | Low 6 |
| 13 Aug | 26.8 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 14 Aug | 25.8 °C | 45 % | 42 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 15 Aug after | 25.4 °C | 55 % | 31 km/h | 3.7 mm | Very low 5 |
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 · 18,022Every 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 Ust-Aldansky Ulus fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 July 2021 and 14 August 2021: 18 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 85,685 hectares (856.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ust-Aldansky Ulus (85,441 ha, 4.6 %); Tattinsky Ulus (513 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very 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.