Abdanan County fire, May 2017 Abdanan County, Darreh Shahr County
The fire started on 31 May 2017 in Abdanan County, Iran, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,137 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 15th largest in Ilam since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 17 in Iran in 2017, of 27.
The power measured by the satellite is low (24.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 1,137ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 31 May 2017 – 2 Jun 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 31 May
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 46
- in a single hotspot: 24 MW
- Danger at start
- 71
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 261MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
28% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 359 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 322 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Abdanan County where it started889 ha0.4 %
-
251 ha0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 May | 35.4 °C | 10 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 1 Jun | 32.5 °C | 4 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 2 Jun | 29.4 °C | 8 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 3 Jun after | 30.5 °C | 11 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 4 Jun after | 33.9 °C | 8 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 5 Jun after | 36.2 °C | 4 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 6 Jun after | 37.3 °C | 6 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 7 Jun after | 38.0 °C | 6 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 8 Jun after | 38.0 °C | 6 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 9 Jun after | 38.0 °C | 8 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 10 Jun after | 38.8 °C | 8 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 11 Jun after | 38.6 °C | 5 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 12 Jun after | 37.3 °C | 6 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 46Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,472 haAbdanan CountyJuly 2019 · 3 days · 3 km away
- 2,193 haDarreh Shahr CountyAugust 2016 · 4 days · 3 km away
- 2,790 haDarreh Shahr CountyJuly 2017 · 5 days · 5 km away
- 4,122 haDarreh Shahr CountyJune 2016 · 6 days · 11 km away
- 3,073 haDarreh Shahr CountyAugust 2020 · 5 days · 12 km away
- 2,610 haPol-e-DokhtarSeptember 2020 · 4 days · 20 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Abdanan County fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 May 2017 and 2 June 2017: 3 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 1,137 hectares (11.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Abdanan County (889 ha, 0.4 %); Darreh Shahr County (251 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 71, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Iran (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: 125
Satellite cross-check
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
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.