How long did the Zhigansky Ulus fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 July 2019 and 17 August 2019: 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 169,479 hectares (1,694.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Zhigansky Ulus (159,929 ha, 1.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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 · 2019-07-11 → 2019-08-17

Zhigansky Ulus fire, 11 July 2019 Zhigansky Ulus

Out · last detection 17 Aug 2019, 18:40 UTC

The fire started on 11 July 2019 in Zhigansky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 169,479 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

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.

It is the 16th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1422 with a page). Number 3 in Russia in 2019, of 613.

Burnt area: 169,479ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 38days; 11 Jul 2019 – 17 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 11 Jul; 2019
Heat detections: 24,516; in a single hotspot: 800 MW
Danger at start: 9; Low · FWI index
Energy released: 294.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 17 Aug 2019

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jul17 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

31°high

59km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 18 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

159,929 ha reached on 11 Jul

1.1 %

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)
11 Jul	29.3 °C	32 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
12 Jul	30.6 °C	32 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
13 Jul	27.1 °C	54 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
14 Jul	23.0 °C	44 %	36 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 13
15 Jul	22.6 °C	36 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
16 Jul	22.4 °C	33 %	38 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 16
17 Jul	20.7 °C	58 %	54 km/h	3.2 mm	Very low 4
18 Jul	14.0 °C	44 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
19 Jul	15.7 °C	39 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
20 Jul	20.3 °C	31 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
21 Jul	25.0 °C	31 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
22 Jul	22.7 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
23 Jul	25.0 °C	34 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
24 Jul	27.6 °C	28 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
25 Jul	28.3 °C	26 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
26 Jul	27.5 °C	34 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
27 Jul	21.7 °C	47 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
28 Jul	24.0 °C	42 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
29 Jul	17.0 °C	48 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
30 Jul	19.2 °C	35 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
31 Jul	18.4 °C	35 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
1 Aug	19.3 °C	38 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
2 Aug	19.8 °C	37 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
3 Aug	18.3 °C	47 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 18
4 Aug	21.8 °C	27 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
5 Aug	23.8 °C	32 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
6 Aug	19.2 °C	48 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
7 Aug	27.0 °C	40 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
8 Aug	21.5 °C	47 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
9 Aug	16.8 °C	62 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
10 Aug	21.8 °C	48 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
11 Aug	22.8 °C	51 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
12 Aug	24.5 °C	44 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
13 Aug	24.7 °C	40 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
14 Aug	25.9 °C	38 %	20 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 20
15 Aug	24.8 °C	47 %	38 km/h	0.1 mm	High 26
16 Aug	20.0 °C	55 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
17 Aug	20.4 °C	57 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
18 Aug after	19.0 °C	63 %	23 km/h	2.5 mm	Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 4 Jul 2019

After · 24 Aug 2019

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 · 24,516Every 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 11 July 2019 and 17 August 2019: 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 169,479 hectares (1,694.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Zhigansky Ulus (159,929 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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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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