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Verkhoyansky Ulus fire, 4 July 2019 Verkhoyansky Ulus

Out · last detection 16 Jul 2019, 16:59 UTC

The fire started on 4 July 2019 in Verkhoyansky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,734 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 737th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1422 with a page). Number 261 in Russia in 2019, of 613.

Burnt area
6,734ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
4 Jul 2019 – 16 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
4 Jul
2019
Heat detections
895
in a single hotspot: 110 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Energy released
8.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jul16 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

4567810111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
46km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 21 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
    6,811 ha reached on 4 Jul
    0.0 %

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)
27 Jun 28.2 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.6 mm High 23
28 Jun 28.3 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Jun 19.4 °C 52 % 42 km/h 1.4 mm Low 11
30 Jun 18.8 °C 50 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
1 Jul 21.3 °C 41 % 29 km/h 5.1 mm Very low 4
2 Jul 13.8 °C 57 % 40 km/h 2.4 mm Very low 3
3 Jul 11.3 °C 62 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm Low 5
4 Jul 14.6 °C 51 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
5 Jul 17.7 °C 41 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
6 Jul 21.9 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
7 Jul 22.3 °C 44 % 19 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 3
8 Jul 23.8 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.9 mm Low 8
9 Jul 24.0 °C 58 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm Low 10
10 Jul 27.6 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 15
11 Jul 27.6 °C 49 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
12 Jul 28.6 °C 34 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 Jul 28.9 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 Jul 24.0 °C 53 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
15 Jul 20.3 °C 48 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
16 Jul 20.1 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
17 Jul after 15.8 °C 58 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
18 Jul after 12.1 °C 47 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Jul after 13.5 °C 42 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
20 Jul after 15.9 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
21 Jul after 19.8 °C 39 % 55 km/h 2.5 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Jun 2019
After · 23 Jul 2019

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 · 895Every 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 4 July 2019 and 16 July 2019: 13 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 6,734 hectares (67.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Verkhoyansky Ulus (6,811 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 46 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.

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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.