Burned area
satellite only182,547ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 16 Jul 2021 – 14 Aug 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
RU · Russia · –
Vilyuysky Ulus fire, 16 July 2021 Vilyuysky Ulus, Zhigansky Ulus
Out · last detection 14 Aug 2021, 04:05 UTC
The fire started on 16 July 2021 in Vilyuysky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 182,547 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.
Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:
It is the 8th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1347 with a page). Number 4 in Russia in 2021, of 581.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only30days
16 Jul 2021 to 14 Aug 2021: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 14 Aug 2021, 04:05 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only16 Jul 2021
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 16 Jul 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only25,762
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 797 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 16 Jul 2021 – 14 Aug 2021
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only80,615MW
Total radiative power on 26 July 2021; hotspots that day: 2,517.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 26 Jul 2021
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model25.6FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 3.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 16 Jul 2021, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model31.7°C · 30% RH
High of 31.7 °C and minimum humidity of 30% on 26 July 2021; gusts of 53 km/h on 7 August 2021.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 16 Jul 2021 – 14 Aug 2021
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 182,547 ha
- Dates
- 16 Jul 2021 – 14 Aug 2021
- Name
- Vilyuysky Ulus
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/vilyuysky-ulus-2021-07-2?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire vilyuysky-ulus-2021-07-2.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-07-16 | 8 | 23 | 23.7 | 7.1 | 25 | 10.6 | 29.2 | 0 | 25.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-17 | 43 | 1,358 | 25.5 | 10.4 | 37 | 15.4 | 40.7 | 0 | 30.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-18 | 164 | 2,832 | 23 | 9.8 | 26 | 12.1 | 25.2 | 0 | 23.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-19 | 21 | 63 | 22 | 14.1 | 47 | 19.6 | 45.4 | 0.2 | 31.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-20 | 0 | 0 | 22.4 | 12 | 51 | 13.4 | 26.6 | 0 | 21.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-21 | 234 | 2,091 | 25.1 | 14.1 | 36 | 8.7 | 25.9 | 0 | 21.3 | moderado | 1 |
| 2021-07-22 | 368 | 2,077 | 24.6 | 11.7 | 52 | 9.5 | 26.3 | 1.1 | 19.3 | moderado | 1 |
| 2021-07-23 | 36 | 181 | 24.8 | 12.5 | 45 | 8.8 | 20.2 | 0 | 11 | bajo | 1 |
| 2021-07-24 | 225 | 4,219 | 27.2 | 13 | 31 | 16.9 | 37.1 | 0 | 25.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-25 | 527 | 8,486 | 26.3 | 13.4 | 25 | 14.1 | 35.3 | 0 | 30.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-26 | 2,517 | 80,615 | 31.7 | 15.1 | 30 | 13.8 | 35.6 | 0 | 32.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-27 | 1,796 | 26,152 | 26 | 16.7 | 38 | 11.9 | 32.8 | 0 | 29.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-28 | 1,449 | 19,110 | 24.4 | 12.3 | 38 | 11.4 | 28.1 | 0 | 27.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-29 | 1,823 | 39,977 | 24.3 | 9.4 | 25 | 10.5 | 28.4 | 0 | 29 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-30 | 2,000 | 30,848 | 25.8 | 7.8 | 29 | 9.8 | 20.9 | 0 | 24.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-31 | 1,369 | 6,050 | 27.1 | 9 | 25 | 9.4 | 18 | 0 | 25.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-08-01 | 1,734 | 34,902 | 27.2 | 10 | 36 | 10.4 | 23.8 | 0 | 29.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-08-02 | 1,437 | 14,873 | 29.2 | 12.7 | 36 | 15.2 | 36 | 0 | 28.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-08-03 | 375 | 4,533 | 28.3 | 14.2 | 23 | 13.3 | 31.7 | 0 | 28.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-08-04 | 538 | 2,071 | 27 | 12.4 | 32 | 12.8 | 29.9 | 0 | 28.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-08-05 | 5,597 | 72,589 | 26.4 | 13.3 | 24 | 17.1 | 40 | 0 | 35.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-08-06 | 1,915 | 42,295 | 20.1 | 11 | 37 | 15.8 | 41.8 | 0 | 37.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-08-07 | 384 | 1,104 | 22.8 | 12.5 | 34 | 22.4 | 52.6 | 0.4 | 45.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-08-08 | 279 | 1,419 | 23.3 | 17.1 | 45 | 21 | 51.1 | 0 | 41.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-08-09 | 367 | 1,524 | 25.9 | 18.6 | 43 | 15.1 | 36.4 | 0 | 30.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-08-10 | 185 | 656 | 21.5 | 16.7 | 52 | 14 | 34.2 | 4 | 18.1 | moderado | 1 |
| 2021-08-11 | 94 | 354 | 23.6 | 14.1 | 47 | 11.8 | 31.3 | 0 | 5.8 | bajo | 1 |
| 2021-08-12 | 144 | 589 | 23.2 | 11.5 | 52 | 8 | 23.8 | 0.2 | 8.4 | bajo | 1 |
| 2021-08-13 | 107 | 637 | 24.2 | 10.5 | 42 | 7.7 | 22.3 | 0.8 | 15.2 | moderado | 1 |
| 2021-08-14 | 26 | 237 | 16.7 | 11.2 | 53 | 14.5 | 38.5 | 0.8 | 12.8 | moderado | 1 |
| 2021-08-15 | 0 | 0 | 12.4 | 8.2 | 65 | 10.9 | 25.6 | 5.6 | 0.1 | muy_bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 182,547ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 30days
- 16 Jul 2021 – 14 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Jul
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 25,762
- in a single hotspot: 797 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 13.9GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
16 Jul14 Aug
14 Aug 2021
How it evolved, day by day
16 Jul
26 Jul
4 Aug
10 Aug
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
53km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.6 mm on 15 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Moscow boundary: geoBoundaries · OpenStreetMap, Wambacher · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Vilyuysky Ulus where it started162,914 ha reached on 16 Jul3.0 %
-
21,445 ha reached on 26 Jul0.2 %
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 2020Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Jul | 23.7 °C | 25 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Jul | 25.5 °C | 37 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 18 Jul | 23.0 °C | 26 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 19 Jul | 22.0 °C | 47 % | 45 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Jul | 22.4 °C | 51 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 21 Jul | 25.1 °C | 36 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 22 Jul | 24.6 °C | 52 % | 26 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 23 Jul | 24.8 °C | 45 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 24 Jul | 27.2 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Jul | 26.3 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Jul | 31.7 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 27 Jul | 26.0 °C | 38 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 28 Jul | 24.4 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 29 Jul | 24.3 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 30 Jul | 25.8 °C | 29 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 31 Jul | 27.1 °C | 25 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 1 Aug | 27.2 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Aug | 29.2 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Aug | 28.3 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 4 Aug | 27.0 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 5 Aug | 26.4 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 6 Aug | 20.1 °C | 37 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 7 Aug | 22.8 °C | 34 % | 53 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Aug | 23.3 °C | 45 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Aug | 25.9 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Aug | 21.5 °C | 52 % | 34 km/h | 4.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 11 Aug | 23.6 °C | 47 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 12 Aug | 23.2 °C | 52 % | 24 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 8 |
| 13 Aug | 24.2 °C | 42 % | 22 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 14 Aug | 16.7 °C | 53 % | 38 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 15 Aug after | 12.4 °C | 65 % | 26 km/h | 5.6 mm | Very low 0 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 25.6, a minimum humidity of 25% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 31.
FWI at the start
25.6
Minimum humidity
25 %
Days without rain
3
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Vilyuysky Ulus fire, 16 July 2021
182,547 ha
30 days
FWI 25.6
Min. humidity 25 %
Verkhnevilyuysky Ulus fire, July 2018
7,164 ha
3 days
FWI 26.1
Min. humidity 27 %
73 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 10.2 mm on 4 Jul.
Zhigansky Ulus fire, June 2018
13,550 ha
7 days
FWI 27.3
Min. humidity 24 %
168 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 15.5 mm on 5 Jul.
Nyurbinsky Ulus fire, July 2019
6,354 ha
11 days
FWI 24.3
Min. humidity 26 %
211 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.3 mm on 2 Aug.
Vilyuysky Ulus fire, July 2024
10,272 ha
26 days
FWI 25.8
Min. humidity 28 %
121 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.8 mm on 10 Aug.
Verkhnevilyuysky Ulus fire, August 2017
16,270 ha
18 days
FWI 22.9
Min. humidity 25 %
224 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.6 mm on 26 Aug.
What happened to them
- 10 days
- median duration
- 7,164 ha
- median area
- 39 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 4.4 mm
- rain at the end (median; 31 of 31 had it)
It was 25.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 30 days, against 10 days.
None of its 31 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. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 4.4 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
5.6 mmfirst rain
15 Augthe day after it ended
53km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 14 Aug, and on 15 Aug 5.6 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 31 of 31, with a median of 4.4 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 9 Jul 2021
After · 21 Aug 2021
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 25,762Every 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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Vilyuysky Ulus fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 July 2021 and 14 August 2021: 30 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 182,547 hectares (1,825.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Vilyuysky Ulus (162,914 ha, 3.0 %); Zhigansky Ulus (21,445 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very 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: 31. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 7,164 ha; 39 % went past 10,000 ha. None of its 31 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. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 4.4 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 25,762 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.