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Verkhoyansky Ulus fire, June 2018 Verkhoyansky Ulus

Out · last detection 11 Jul 2018, 03:52 UTC

The fire started on 26 June 2018 in Verkhoyansky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,278 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 534th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1422 with a page). Number 150 in Russia in 2018, of 540.

Burnt area
9,278ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
26 Jun 2018 – 11 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
26 Jun
2018
Heat detections
879
in a single hotspot: 222 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
16.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jun11 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

26272829301234567891011

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
54km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 26.2 mm on 12 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Verkhoyansky Ulus where it started
    9,453 ha reached on 23 Jun
    0.1 %

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)
23 Jun 26.7 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
24 Jun 26.2 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
25 Jun 27.4 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
26 Jun 17.7 °C 52 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 14
27 Jun 16.7 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
28 Jun 20.3 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
29 Jun 21.3 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
30 Jun 21.3 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
1 Jul 24.0 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
2 Jul 19.9 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 18
3 Jul 28.1 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
4 Jul 30.5 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Jul 29.8 °C 26 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Jul 28.2 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Jul 29.8 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
8 Jul 31.7 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
9 Jul 23.9 °C 47 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
10 Jul 19.6 °C 46 % 27 km/h 1.5 mm Low 7
11 Jul 26.0 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 17
12 Jul after 17.6 °C 84 % 30 km/h 26.2 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Jun 2018
After · 18 Jul 2018

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 · 879Every 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 Verkhoyansky Ulus fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 June 2018 and 11 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 9,278 hectares (92.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Verkhoyansky Ulus (9,453 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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
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.

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.