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Ankazobe fire, September 2017 Ankazobe

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2017, 11:05 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2017 in Ankazobe, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,667 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 5th largest in Analamanga since 2016 (of 22 with a page). Number 31 in Madagascar in 2017, of 57.

Burnt area
2,667ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
15 Sept 2017 – 18 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Sept
2017
Heat detections
72
in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
765MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

15161718

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
36km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 22 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Ankazobe where it started
    2,680 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.4 %

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)
15 Sept 28.1 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Sept 27.9 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Sept 28.0 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Sept 26.2 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Sept after 25.5 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Sept after 26.0 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Sept after 25.7 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Sept after 22.6 °C 46 % 30 km/h 2.3 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2017
After · 25 Sept 2017

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 · 72Every 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 Ankazobe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 September 2017 and 18 September 2017: 4 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 2,667 hectares (26.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ankazobe (2,680 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.1 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.