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Ambilobe fire, October 2016 Ambilobe

Out · last detection 27 Oct 2016, 09:38 UTC

The fire started on 18 October 2016 in Ambilobe, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,957 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Diana since 2016 (of 25 with a page). Number 12 in Madagascar in 2016, of 59.

Burnt area
3,957ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
18 Oct 2016 – 27 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Oct
2016
Heat detections
189
in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Oct27 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

182021222324252627

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
43km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 2 Nov.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Ambilobe where it started
    3,978 ha reached on 14 Oct
    0.5 %

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)
18 Oct 34.7 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Oct 33.2 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.7 mm High 28
20 Oct 33.5 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Oct 33.7 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Oct 34.2 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Oct 35.0 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Oct 34.7 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Oct 35.4 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
26 Oct 35.0 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
27 Oct 36.3 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Oct after 35.6 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.6 mm High 31
29 Oct after 33.8 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm High 32
30 Oct after 35.1 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm High 31
31 Oct after 35.2 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.7 mm High 30
1 Nov after 36.0 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Nov after 34.2 °C 38 % 31 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Oct 2016
After · 3 Nov 2016

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 · 189Every 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 Madagascar ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ambilobe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 October 2016 and 27 October 2016: 10 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 3,957 hectares (39.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ambilobe (3,978 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Madagascar (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.

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.

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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 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.