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Усть-Кутский район fire, 12 June 2016 Усть-Кутский район

Out · last detection 2 Jul 2016, 06:28 UTC

The fire started on 12 June 2016 in Усть-Кутский район, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,193 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 124th largest in Irkutsk Oblast since 2016 (of 421 with a page). Number 228 in Russia in 2016, of 692.

Burnt area
9,193ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
12 Jun 2016 – 2 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Jun
2016
Heat detections
737
in a single hotspot: 284 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Average daily power
258MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jun2 Jul
2 Jul 2016

How it evolved, day by day

12 Jun 2016 · 162 MW · 17 13 Jun 2016 · 5 MW · 1 14 Jun 2016 · 1 MW · 1 15 Jun 2016 · 29 MW · 7 16 Jun 2016 · 83 MW · 10 17 Jun 2016 · 10 MW · 2 18 Jun 2016 · 1 MW · 1 19 Jun 2016 · 44 MW · 6 20 Jun 2016 · 789 MW · 61 21 Jun 2016 · 102 MW · 33 22 Jun 2016 · 68 MW · 12 23 Jun 2016 · 24 MW · 15 24 Jun 2016 · 408 MW · 99 25 Jun 2016 · 128 MW · 23 26 Jun 2016 · 2 MW · 1 27 Jun 2016 · 244 MW · 45 28 Jun 2016 · 1,551 MW · 121 29 Jun 2016 · 1,336 MW · 136 30 Jun 2016 · 230 MW · 68 1 Jul 2016 · 157 MW · 69 2 Jul 2016 · 34 MW · 9
12 Jun 17 Jun 22 Jun 28 Jun 2 Jul

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

31°high
51km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.1 mm on 4 Jul.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 5.8% of the area of London (92 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. 9,176 ha reached on 12 Jun
    0.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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 Jun 24.8 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Jun 26.1 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
14 Jun 26.2 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Jun 21.0 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Jun 24.8 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 Jun 20.7 °C 47 % 45 km/h 3.9 mm Moderate 18
18 Jun 18.8 °C 55 % 41 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 3
19 Jun 18.5 °C 32 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
20 Jun 20.9 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Jun 22.9 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
22 Jun 24.9 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
23 Jun 25.0 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Jun 28.9 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Jun 27.7 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm High 23
26 Jun 20.8 °C 40 % 45 km/h 1.8 mm Low 9
27 Jun 22.5 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
28 Jun 27.3 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Jun 29.4 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Jun 29.5 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
1 Jul 31.3 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Jul 28.7 °C 32 % 24 km/h 1.0 mm High 25
3 Jul after 25.7 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
4 Jul after 21.9 °C 56 % 30 km/h 6.1 mm Moderate 15

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 27.2, a minimum humidity of 23% and 8 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 15.

FWI at the start 27.2
Minimum humidity 23 %
Days without rain 8
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Нижнеилимский район fire, July 2019
4,293 ha 16 days FWI 29.8 Min. humidity 22 % 86 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.8 mm on 18 Jul.

What happened to them

11 days
median duration
4,293 ha
median area
27 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.1 mm
rain at the end (median; 14 of 15 had it)

It was 2.1 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 21 days, against 11 days.

Only 4 of its 15 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.1 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

6.1 mmfirst rain
4 Jul2 days after it ended
51km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 2 Jul, and on 4 Jul 6.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 14 of 15, with a median of 3.1 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jun 2016
After · 9 Jul 2016

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 · 737Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Russia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Усть-Кутский район fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 June 2016 to 2 July 2016 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 June 2016 to 2 July 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,193 hectares (91.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Усть-Кутский район (9,176 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 15. Their median duration was 11 days and their median area 4,293 ha; 27 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 4 of its 15 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.1 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 15 June 2016 → 12 June 2016.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 15 June 2016 to 2 July 2016. 737 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.