Skip to content
worldfires
en
RU · Russia · →

Zhigansky Ulus fire, 12 July 2019 Zhigansky Ulus

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

The fire started on 12 July 2019 in Zhigansky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 37 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 197,200 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 7th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1422 with a page). The largest in Russia in 2019, of 610.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Zhigansky Ulus · 2020

Burnt area
197,200ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
37days
12 Jul 2019 – 17 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Jul
2019
Heat detections
29,731
in a single hotspot: 853 MW
Danger at start
9
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
9.6GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jul17 Aug
17 Aug 2019

How it evolved, day by day

12 Jul 2019 · 60 MW · 16 13 Jul 2019 · 116 MW · 16 14 Jul 2019 · 478 MW · 32 15 Jul 2019 · 1,475 MW · 218 16 Jul 2019 · 17,451 MW · 411 18 Jul 2019 · 69 MW · 10 19 Jul 2019 · 259 MW · 68 20 Jul 2019 · 3,158 MW · 275 21 Jul 2019 · 36,565 MW · 1042 22 Jul 2019 · 21,625 MW · 1159 23 Jul 2019 · 5,903 MW · 564 24 Jul 2019 · 25,346 MW · 1630 25 Jul 2019 · 19,866 MW · 1302 26 Jul 2019 · 264 MW · 47 27 Jul 2019 · 487 MW · 77 28 Jul 2019 · 964 MW · 240 29 Jul 2019 · 1,723 MW · 280 30 Jul 2019 · 9,996 MW · 974 31 Jul 2019 · 13,234 MW · 1266 1 Aug 2019 · 18,537 MW · 1074 2 Aug 2019 · 9,297 MW · 1234 3 Aug 2019 · 15,258 MW · 1401 4 Aug 2019 · 27,831 MW · 1618 5 Aug 2019 · 2,211 MW · 703 6 Aug 2019 · 7,413 MW · 742 7 Aug 2019 · 32,090 MW · 3937 8 Aug 2019 · 260 MW · 126 9 Aug 2019 · 5,059 MW · 855 10 Aug 2019 · 5,448 MW · 838 11 Aug 2019 · 7,777 MW · 1312 12 Aug 2019 · 5,806 MW · 1090 13 Aug 2019 · 11,258 MW · 1226 14 Aug 2019 · 19,099 MW · 1496 15 Aug 2019 · 11,334 MW · 1427 16 Aug 2019 · 6,814 MW · 674 17 Aug 2019 · 1,285 MW · 351
12 Jul 19 Jul 21 Jul 25 Jul 31 Jul 6 Aug 12 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

30°high
46km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 19 Aug.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 80 ha in 2018.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.2 times the area of London (1,972 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Zhigansky Ulus where it started
    190,933 ha
    1.4 %

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.

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)
12 Jul 29.5 °C 33 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
13 Jul 27.2 °C 55 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
14 Jul 22.9 °C 44 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
15 Jul 21.7 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
16 Jul 20.2 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
17 Jul 15.8 °C 72 % 46 km/h 10.2 mm Very low 0
18 Jul 14.2 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
19 Jul 15.8 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
20 Jul 19.2 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
21 Jul 24.1 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
22 Jul 22.3 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
23 Jul 24.2 °C 36 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
24 Jul 26.3 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
25 Jul 27.0 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
26 Jul 25.5 °C 46 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
27 Jul 20.9 °C 51 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
28 Jul 24.0 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
29 Jul 14.3 °C 63 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
30 Jul 17.6 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
31 Jul 17.3 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
1 Aug 19.5 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
2 Aug 19.4 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 15
3 Aug 20.6 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
4 Aug 21.3 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
5 Aug 20.7 °C 47 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
6 Aug 18.3 °C 50 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
7 Aug 23.9 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
8 Aug 19.0 °C 57 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
9 Aug 19.2 °C 52 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
10 Aug 21.9 °C 46 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
11 Aug 23.4 °C 46 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
12 Aug 24.3 °C 45 % 25 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 15
13 Aug 25.1 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
14 Aug 25.4 °C 42 % 21 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
15 Aug 25.3 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Aug 23.2 °C 51 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 Aug 21.2 °C 57 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
18 Aug after 19.0 °C 61 % 22 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 15
19 Aug after 16.0 °C 67 % 21 km/h 1.5 mm Low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jul 2019
After · 24 Aug 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 · 29,731Every 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 Zhigansky Ulus fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 July 2019 and 17 August 2019: 37 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 197,200 hectares (1,972.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Zhigansky Ulus (190,933 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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 · 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

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
What do you think is wrong?

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 29,731 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.