How long did the Vikulovsky District fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 May 2023 and 17 May 2023: 7 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 3,239 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Vikulovsky District (1,400 ha, 0.2 %); Sorokinsky District (940 ha, 0.4 %); Vagaysky District (881 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 18.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.

RU · Russia · 2023-05-11 → 2023-05-17

Vikulovsky District fire, 11 May 2023 Vikulovsky District, Sorokinsky District, Vagaysky District

Out · last detection 17 May 2023, 08:49 UTC

The fire started on 11 May 2023 in Vikulovsky District, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,239 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 97th largest in Tyumen Oblast since 2016 (of 104 with a page). Number 404 in Russia in 2023, of 452.

Burnt area: 3,239ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 7days; 11 May 2023 – 17 May 2023
Municipalities hit: 3; districts
Started on: 11 May; 2023
Heat detections: 241; in a single hotspot: 126 MW
Danger at start: 21; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 17 May 2023

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 May17 May

How it evolved, day by day

11121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

19°high

45km/h · peak gust

18%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 27 May.

This area had burned before

37% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 488 ha in 2021, 725 ha in 2022.

464 ha Vagaysky District fire, April 2021 4,763 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Vikulovsky District where it started

1,400 ha reached on 10 May

0.2 %
Sorokinsky District

940 ha reached on 13 May

0.4 %
Vagaysky District

881 ha reached on 13 May

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)
10 May	14.5 °C	18 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 21
11 May	16.9 °C	21 %	43 km/h	0.1 mm	High 29
12 May	11.4 °C	24 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
13 May	13.8 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
14 May	17.6 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
15 May	16.4 °C	26 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
16 May	18.6 °C	26 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
17 May	14.5 °C	26 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
18 May after	16.3 °C	20 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
19 May after	20.6 °C	15 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
20 May after	23.4 °C	17 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
21 May after	25.2 °C	16 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
22 May after	26.3 °C	17 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
23 May after	26.0 °C	20 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
24 May after	27.6 °C	17 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
25 May after	22.1 °C	37 %	48 km/h	0.6 mm	High 32
26 May after	22.9 °C	19 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
27 May after	22.2 °C	28 %	25 km/h	1.1 mm	Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 4 May 2023

After · 24 May 2023

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 11 May 2023 the air beside the fire reached 290 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 96: 6.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak290 µg/m³

Days over the guideline12 days

PM10414 µg/m³

Optical depth2.02

WHO 15

91011121314151617181920

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 241Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Russia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Vikulovsky District fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 May 2023 and 17 May 2023: 7 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 3,239 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Vikulovsky District (1,400 ha, 0.2 %); Sorokinsky District (940 ha, 0.4 %); Vagaysky District (881 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 18.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned