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Bavi fire, April 2017 Ahvaz, Bavi

Out · last detection 24 Apr 2017, 22:57 UTC

The fire started on 14 April 2017 in Bavi, Iran, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,015 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 40th largest in Khuzestan since 2016 (of 40 with a page). Number 27 in Iran in 2017, of 27.

Burnt area
1,015ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
14 Apr 2017 – 24 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
14 Apr
2017
Heat detections
63
in a single hotspot: 100 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Apr24 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

1416192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
60km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 29 Apr.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,051 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 771 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ahvaz
    651 ha
    0.1 %
  2. Bavi where it started
    368 ha
    0.3 %

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)
14 Apr 40.9 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Apr 36.1 °C 20 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
16 Apr 29.5 °C 30 % 55 km/h 1.0 mm Very high 41
17 Apr 29.4 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Apr 31.6 °C 21 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Apr 35.7 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Apr 36.0 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Apr 36.3 °C 9 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
22 Apr 40.0 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Apr 42.0 °C 6 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Apr 40.3 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
25 Apr after 37.4 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
26 Apr after 37.7 °C 5 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 Apr after 36.9 °C 5 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
28 Apr after 42.0 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 56
29 Apr after 39.1 °C 13 % 50 km/h 1.1 mm Extreme 67

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Apr 2017
After · 1 May 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 · 63Every 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 Iran ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bavi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 April 2017 and 24 April 2017: 11 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 1,015 hectares (10.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ahvaz (651 ha, 0.1 %); Bavi (368 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 42.0 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 125.

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.