GFMC: Forest Fires in the Russian Federation

2003

Forest Fires in the Russian Federation

15 Jul 2003

GFMC General Situation Assessment (25 May 2003)

GFMC analysis: According to the latest satellite-derived analysis the total area burned by 13 July 2003 in the Russian Federation is 20.42 million hectares (ha). For comparison: The total area burned of the whole fire season 2002 was 11.7 million ha (see references at bottom of this web page). The regions most affected are:

– Chitinskaya Oblast 6.49 million ha

– Buryatiya Republic 4.10 million ha

– Amurskaya Oblast 2.79 million ha

During the last week the situation in the region calmed down due to favourable weather. Widespread cloud cover in the regions around Lake Baikal do not allow to receive complete satellite images.

Source of satellite data: Sukachev Institute for Forest, Krasnoyarsk (A.Sukhinin), in cooperation with EMERKOM of Russia (Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations).

Latest satellite Images:

BIRD satellite scene showing fires burning in Krasnoyarsk region on 12 July 2003. This scenes are non geo-referenced BIRD 3.8 µm channel brightness temperature images (without any false alarm filtering applied) with color coding above 320 K pixel temperature (i.e., the hot areas are not necessarily representing active fires. Hot areas may include freshly burned sites). All pixels with a temperature over 326 K are blue and for higher temperatures getting blue – red.

12 July 2003
The above image shows a region from the Olenokskij Zaliv in the North, the Anabar river down to the Bolshaja Kuonamka river.

12 July 2003
The above image shows the more central region with the river Nishnaja Tunguska down to Ust IlimsK (which is partly cloudy).

Source: DLR

Location of large forest fires in Russia for 13 July 2003

This map is providing an overview of large fire locations in the Russian Federation. Details of fire locations reported by the regional airbases of Avialesookhrana and active fires detected by the MODIS sensors (on Terra and Aqua) are provided on two layers over a general Russian vegetation map – see: http://www.nffc.aviales.ru/data/fires_mos/view_daily_e.sht?a=russia

Source: Avialesookhrana, Pushkino

Fire danger map for 11 July 2003 for the Central Siberia:

Source: Sukachev Institute for Forest, Krasnoyarsk

Synoptic weather map for 14 July 2003 for the Russian Federation.

Source: Sukachev Institute for Forest, Krasnoyarsk

Avialesookhrana from the National Forest Fire Centre of Russia provides up-to-date NOAA images for the whole of the Russian Federation and neighbour territories. The Space Monitoring Information Support Laboratory provides extensive links to sites with satellite imagery for the Russian Federation, meteorological information as well as fire related images are accessible.

The NOAA AVHRR satellite image composite shows fire activities in the Russian Federation.

Latest NOAA 12&14 AVHRR composite
The red squares indicate regions of active fires. For details the GFMC readers are encouraged to use the hyperlinks provided by Avialesookhrana, the Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of the Federal Forest service of Russia.
(Source: Avialesookhrana cloudiness maps)

Latest fire situation report by the Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of Russia (Avialesookhrana), 13 July 2003

Fire activities in Chita, Buriatia with out big changes. Still lot of large fires on that regions. But had some rains in Krasnoiarsk and Irkutsk regions. It is growing up the fire activities in Northern portion of European part of Russia.

According to the situation report of the Ministry of Natural Resources of 13 July 2003 a total of 537 fires affected 13,275 ha forested and 1,411 ha non-forested areas. 87 fires of them were reported as new fires. In addition 13 fires occurred that were put out the same day when they started.

Since the beginning of the 2003 fire season a total of 18,926 fires affected 1,601,507 ha forested and 318,703 ha non-forested land under the responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources. (For comparison: Last year up to this date 17,863 fires had burnt 533,783 ha forested and 299,769 ha non-forested lands.)

Most fires have been reported in the following regions:

Arkhandelsk-5 fires
Komi-6 fires
Khanty Mansiysk-20
Tomsk-8
Krasnoiarsk-53
Tuva-47
Irkutsk – 122
Buriatia – 84
Chita – 60 fires
Iakutia-7
Khabarovsk-20
Sakhalin-22
Primorje-14
Magadan-17
Kamchatka-22

Large fires were reported in:

Chita region – 35 fires, the biggest is 13,900 ha. 18 of them are contained.
Irkutsk 40 fires, the biggest is 8,500 ha.
Buriatia -18 fires, the biggest is 6,000 ha.
Krasnojarsk-11 fires, the biggest is 8,000 ha.
Tuva-14 fires, the biggest is 400 ha.
Khabarovsk-5 fires, the biggest is 4,200 ha.
Sakhalin-8 fires, the biggest is 5,200 ha.
Primorje-8 fires, the biggest is 3,000 ha.
Kamchatka-7 fires, the biggest is 1,200 ha.

Through all of Russia 6,333 people, 91 aircraft, 947 bulldozers, tractors and engines have been involved in fire fighting.

Source: Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of Russia (Avialesookhrana ), prepared at GFMC by Mr. Yevgheny Shuktomov.

Eurasian Experimental Fire Weather Information System
The system has been developed by forest fire researchers from Canada, Russia and Germany is displayed on this website starting 18 July 2001. Complete information and a set of daily fire weather and fire behaviour potential maps covering Eurasia (the Baltic Region, Eastern Europe, countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Mongolia) can be accessed at:
https://gfmc.online/fwf/eurasia1.htm

Example of the Eurasian Experimental Fire Weather Information System:
Latest map of the Experimental Fire Weather Index (FWI) for Russia and neighbouring countries

Daily Fire Occurrence and Fire Danger Maps of the Fire Laboratory of the Sukachev Institute of Forest, Krasnoyarsk
Selected fire occurrence maps, satellite images and a forest fire danger map are prepared daily by the Russian GFMC correspondent Dr. Anatoly Sukhinin, Fire Laboratory of the Sukachev Institute of Forest, Krasnoyarsk, in collaboration with the Emergency Situation Monitoring and Forecasting Agency, Krasnoyarsk branch. The maps are produced on the base of satellite data (classification by the NOAA AVHRR). They show the fire locations (by latitude and longitude) and the area affected by fire (red signature, size in ha). The red arrow at each fire location points to the nearest populated place. The terms Oblast or Kray used in the maps are designations of administrative regions. A map showing the boundaries of administrative regions and a legend is included below.

ru_fire_legend.gif (937 Byte)

Map legend

Administrative boundaries

Overview map showing large fire locations detected over the last 10 days

Overview

Latest maps maps showing fire activities of 13 July 2003 (selection)

Chitinskaya Oblast Chitinskaya Oblast Chitinskaya Oblast

Krasnoyarkiy Kray Krasnoyarkiy Kray Respublika Buryatiya

For more details on fire in the Russian Federation:

Bibliography on fire in ecosystems of boreal Eurasia:
One of the results of the first international fire science conference in the Russian Federation (1993) was the publication of a monograph on fire in boreal Eurasia, including some selected contributions on boreal North America. The literature cited in the monograph contains numerous publications which in many cases are not easily accessible. To facilitate literature search the bibliographical sources are provided by topic (chapter).
Goldammer, J.G. and V.V.Furyaev. 1996. Fire in Ecosystems of Boreal Eurasia. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 390 p.

24. November 2017/by GFMCadmin