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Beibei District fire, August 2022 Beibei District, Bishan District

Out · last measured on 25 Aug 2022

The fire started on 21 August 2022 in Beibei District, China, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,720 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

Number 76 in China in 2022, of 241.

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
1,720ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
21 Aug 2022 – 25 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
21 Aug
2022
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

41°high
45km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 30 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Beibei District where it started
    1,004 ha
    1.3 %
  2. Bishan District
    723 ha
    0.8 %

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)
21 Aug 40.6 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Aug 39.7 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Aug 41.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Aug 41.0 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Aug 38.1 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug after 36.5 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.4 mm High 36
27 Aug after 38.5 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Aug after 37.1 °C 34 % 43 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 44
29 Aug after 28.8 °C 49 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
30 Aug after 23.0 °C 59 % 32 km/h 3.3 mm Low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Aug 2022
After · 1 Sept 2022

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

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 19 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 69 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 51: 3.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak69 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1098 µg/m³
Optical depth1.38
19202122232425262728
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Beibei District fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 August 2022 and 25 August 2022: 5 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 1,720 hectares (17.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Beibei District (1,004 ha, 1.3 %); Bishan District (723 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very high.
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.