How long did the Zhigansky Ulus fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 July 2018 and 30 August 2018: 38 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 74,877 hectares (748.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Zhigansky Ulus (77,693 ha, 0.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 25.0 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 70 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.

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 · 2018-07-24 → 2018-08-30

Zhigansky Ulus fire, 24 July 2018 Zhigansky Ulus

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2018, 18:40 UTC

The fire started on 24 July 2018 in Zhigansky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 74,877 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 48th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1422 with a page). Number 6 in Russia in 2018, of 540.

Burnt area: 74,877ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 38days; 24 Jul 2018 – 30 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 24 Jul; 2018
Heat detections: 11,846; in a single hotspot: 700 MW
Danger at start: 12; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 157.8GW; sum of detected power

Play back 30 Aug 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jul30 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2425262728293031123467891011121314151718212224252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

25°high

70km/h · peak gust

33%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.3 mm on 31 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Zhigansky Ulus where it started

77,693 ha reached on 18 Jul

0.6 %

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)
17 Jul	12.1 °C	41 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
18 Jul	12.5 °C	43 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 11
19 Jul	22.0 °C	47 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
20 Jul	19.0 °C	59 %	70 km/h	4.0 mm	Very low 2
21 Jul	10.1 °C	51 %	39 km/h	5.8 mm	Very low 0
22 Jul	14.1 °C	43 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 2
23 Jul	16.7 °C	53 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 4
24 Jul	14.4 °C	46 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
25 Jul	17.2 °C	57 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 6
26 Jul	18.9 °C	40 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
27 Jul	20.9 °C	38 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
28 Jul	21.0 °C	44 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
29 Jul	20.5 °C	38 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
30 Jul	22.6 °C	33 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
31 Jul	23.4 °C	35 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
1 Aug	23.2 °C	37 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
2 Aug	22.2 °C	50 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
3 Aug	24.0 °C	45 %	15 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
4 Aug	25.0 °C	38 %	43 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 17
5 Aug	16.6 °C	44 %	39 km/h	2.1 mm	Very low 5
6 Aug	22.3 °C	51 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
7 Aug	24.0 °C	42 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
8 Aug	24.5 °C	37 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
9 Aug	24.8 °C	37 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
10 Aug	24.5 °C	40 %	40 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 19
11 Aug	22.5 °C	49 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
12 Aug	20.8 °C	53 %	29 km/h	1.8 mm	Very low 4
13 Aug	21.6 °C	46 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
14 Aug	23.8 °C	39 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
15 Aug	23.2 °C	47 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
16 Aug	18.4 °C	62 %	28 km/h	2.4 mm	Very low 4
17 Aug	21.3 °C	47 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
18 Aug	24.0 °C	43 %	27 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 14
19 Aug	16.5 °C	83 %	25 km/h	8.0 mm	Very low 0
20 Aug	17.8 °C	72 %	18 km/h	6.2 mm	Very low 0
21 Aug	21.3 °C	60 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 1
22 Aug	19.6 °C	61 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 3
23 Aug	13.1 °C	63 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 4
24 Aug	17.8 °C	48 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 7
25 Aug	18.0 °C	45 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
26 Aug	18.5 °C	46 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
27 Aug	20.3 °C	47 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
28 Aug	19.2 °C	54 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
29 Aug	19.3 °C	52 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
30 Aug	19.3 °C	46 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
31 Aug after	15.7 °C	60 %	62 km/h	5.3 mm	Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 17 Jul 2018

After · 6 Sept 2018

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.

Detections table · 11,846Every 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 Zhigansky Ulus fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 July 2018 and 30 August 2018: 38 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 74,877 hectares (748.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Zhigansky Ulus (77,693 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 25.0 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 70 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
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