Ust-Ilimsky fire, June 2018 Ust-Ilimsky
The fire started on 19 June 2018 in Ust-Ilimsky, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,418 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 140th largest in Irkutsk Oblast since 2016 (of 428 with a page). Number 169 in Russia in 2018, of 540.
- Burnt area
- 8,418ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 19 Jun 2018 – 4 Jul 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 19 Jun
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 762
- in a single hotspot: 277 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 8.1GW
- 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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 6 Jul.
This area had burned before
13% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 687 ha in 2016, 384 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Ust-Ilimsky where it started8,508 ha reached on 19 Jun0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jun | 28.4 °C | 32 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 20 Jun | 30.3 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 21 Jun | 27.2 °C | 40 % | 38 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 22 Jun | 21.7 °C | 54 % | 36 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 23 Jun | 24.3 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 24 Jun | 25.9 °C | 39 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 25 Jun | 28.8 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 26 Jun | 29.7 °C | 36 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 27 Jun | 28.5 °C | 38 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 28 Jun | 28.8 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 29 Jun | 25.0 °C | 37 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Jun | 26.3 °C | 34 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 1 Jul | 27.9 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 25 |
| 2 Jul | 28.7 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Jul | 28.5 °C | 32 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 4 Jul | 28.5 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Jul after | 18.7 °C | 58 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 6 Jul after | 17.1 °C | 39 % | 31 km/h | 2.3 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 · 762Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,991 haUst-Ilimsky10 August 2018 · 4 days · 5 km away
- 4,128 haUst-IlimskyJune 2026 · 8 days · 25 km away
- 4,407 haUst-Ilimsky20 June 2017 · 12 days · 27 km away
- 4,849 haUst-Ilimsky13 September 2016 · 16 days · 29 km away
- 5,200 haUst-Ilimsky30 June 2019 · 14 days · 30 km away
- 3,449 haUst-Ilimsky22 June 2017 · 3 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ust-Ilimsky fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 June 2018 and 4 July 2018: 16 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 8,418 hectares (84.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ust-Ilimsky (8,508 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class 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.