How long did the Zhigansky Ulus fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 July 2021 and 14 August 2021: 32 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 40,638 hectares (406.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Zhigansky Ulus (38,385 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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 · 2021-07-14 → 2021-08-14

Zhigansky Ulus fire, 14 July 2021 Zhigansky Ulus

Out · last detection 14 Aug 2021, 04:05 UTC

The fire started on 14 July 2021 in Zhigansky Ulus, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 40,638 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 107th largest in Sakha Republic since 2016 (of 1422 with a page). Number 44 in Russia in 2021, of 581.

Burnt area: 40,638ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 32days; 14 Jul 2021 – 14 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 14 Jul; 2021
Heat detections: 13,066; in a single hotspot: 261 MW
Danger at start: 20; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 95.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 14 Aug 2021

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

14161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314

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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.2 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

38,385 ha reached on 7 Jul

0.3 %

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)
7 Jul	30.8 °C	32 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
8 Jul	32.1 °C	30 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
9 Jul	26.1 °C	40 %	45 km/h	10.4 mm	Very low 2
10 Jul	17.0 °C	37 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
11 Jul	22.7 °C	38 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 9
12 Jul	16.2 °C	72 %	34 km/h	4.2 mm	Very low 0
13 Jul	24.7 °C	48 %	37 km/h	0.5 mm	Very low 3
14 Jul	24.3 °C	48 %	44 km/h	1.5 mm	Very low 5
15 Jul	18.1 °C	37 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
16 Jul	22.6 °C	32 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
17 Jul	26.0 °C	36 %	53 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 18
18 Jul	21.8 °C	37 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
19 Jul	25.8 °C	46 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
20 Jul	24.5 °C	47 %	24 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 14
21 Jul	22.9 °C	47 %	35 km/h	0.8 mm	Low 11
22 Jul	25.9 °C	39 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
23 Jul	26.3 °C	46 %	19 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 14
24 Jul	26.6 °C	32 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
25 Jul	23.8 °C	41 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
26 Jul	30.1 °C	40 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
27 Jul	20.6 °C	47 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
28 Jul	23.7 °C	32 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
29 Jul	22.5 °C	32 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
30 Jul	25.5 °C	27 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
31 Jul	27.9 °C	29 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
1 Aug	29.0 °C	41 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
2 Aug	31.2 °C	34 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
3 Aug	29.8 °C	24 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
4 Aug	28.7 °C	35 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
5 Aug	26.2 °C	23 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
6 Aug	23.2 °C	34 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
7 Aug	25.0 °C	37 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
8 Aug	24.3 °C	36 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
9 Aug	26.8 °C	34 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
10 Aug	26.3 °C	42 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
11 Aug	24.2 °C	49 %	20 km/h	4.1 mm	Very low 4
12 Aug	24.4 °C	45 %	16 km/h	1.0 mm	Low 6
13 Aug	25.2 °C	46 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
14 Aug	17.6 °C	50 %	41 km/h	2.8 mm	Low 6
15 Aug after	16.6 °C	53 %	27 km/h	0.8 mm	Low 6
16 Aug after	15.6 °C	58 %	20 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 7
17 Aug after	19.0 °C	49 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
18 Aug after	12.7 °C	77 %	17 km/h	9.2 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Jul 2021

After · 21 Aug 2021

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 · 13,066Every 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

169,479 haZhigansky Ulus11 July 2019 · 38 days · 20 km away

All fires in Russia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Zhigansky Ulus fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 July 2021 and 14 August 2021: 32 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 40,638 hectares (406.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Zhigansky Ulus (38,385 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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