GFMC: Forest Fires in the Russian Federation

2003

Forest Fires in the Russian Federation and in Kasakhstan

15 September 2003

Russia

GFMC analysis: According to the latest satellite-derived analysis the total area burned by 14 September 2003 in the Russian Federation is 23.27 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).

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

Synoptic weather map for 15 September 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)

Lightning data collected from 05/06 September 2003. Red dots are more powerful strikes and blue one are less.

Source: Avialesookhran and Technologies of Monitoring and Safety (TMS).

Latest fire situation report by the Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of Russia (Avialesookhrana), 09 September 2003

Still strong fire activity retain in Western Siberia-Tomsk and Novosibirsk and Southern Ural. 12 lirge fire were reported in Tomsk. Most of them are managing by Confine strategy.

According to the situation report of the Ministry of Natural Resources of 9 September 2003 a total of 89 fires affected 35,056 ha forested and 298 ha non-forested areas. 19 fires of them were reported as new fires. In addition 70 fires occurred that were put out the same day when they started.

Since the beginning of the 2003 fire season a total of 25,057 fires affected 2,033,401 ha forested and 554,400 ha non-forested land under the responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources. (For comparison: Last year up to this date 32,571 fires had burnt 1,037,352 ha forested and 447,094 ha non-forested lands.)

Most fires have been reported in the following regions:

Altay-35 (all were put out the same day as they were detected)
Kemerovo-4
Tomsk-36
Novosibirsk-32
Magadan-5

Large fires were reported in:

Novosibirsk-3 fires, the biggest is 85 ha.
Tomsk-12 fires, the biggest is 8,000 ha.

Through all of Russia 1,303 people, 14 aircraft, 314 bulldozers, tractors and engines have been involved in fire fighting.

Source: Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of Russia (Avialesookhrana )

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 14 September 2003 (selection)

Amurskaya Oblast Irkutskaya Oblast Primorskiy Kray

For more details on fire in the Russian Federation:

Kazakhstan

The following information on the status of forest fires in the Republic of Kazakhstan on 28 August 2003 has been provided by Avialesookhrana of Kazakhstan:

The information on the arisen and working forest fires in territory of Republic Kazakhstan as of 14,09, 2003:
–

Quantity of forest fires from the beginning of year 823
The burnt out area 84196 hectare
Including covered with a wood – _31521_ hectare
The most subject area to forest fires – Semipalatinsk
Forest fires 288
The burnt out area 35149 hectare

Including covered with a wood 14709 hectar

Source: Mr. Nikolay I.Ezhov, Director of the Kazakh Base for Aerial Forest Fire Protection

Mr. Nikolay I. Eghov
Chief, Avialesookhrana of Kazakhstan
Gorkogo St. 259
Almaty
Kazakhstan, 480020

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