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Bayan County fire, 18 April 2021 Bayan County

Out · last measured on 21 Apr 2021

The fire started on 18 April 2021 in Bayan County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,473 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 269th largest in Heilongjiang Province since 2016 (of 1751 with a page). Number 35 in China in 2021, of 261.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
3,473ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
18 Apr 2021 – 21 Apr 2021
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
18 Apr
2021
Danger at start
4
Very low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

23°high
58km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 27 Apr.

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,463 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Bayan County where it started
    3,463 ha
    1.1 %

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 Apr 13.8 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
19 Apr 18.3 °C 25 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
20 Apr 13.6 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
21 Apr 23.4 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
22 Apr after 23.9 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 18
23 Apr after 14.9 °C 62 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm Low 7
24 Apr after 12.2 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
25 Apr after 14.1 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
26 Apr after 17.5 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
27 Apr after 17.0 °C 39 % 56 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Apr 2021
After · 28 Apr 2021

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in China ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bayan County fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 April 2021 and 21 April 2021: 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 3,473 hectares (34.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bayan County (3,463 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 23.4 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of China (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: 119

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 119.

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 ADM3 (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.