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Boli County fire, 18 October 2017 Boli County

Out · last measured on 30 Oct 2017

The fire started on 18 October 2017 in Boli County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,212 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 199th largest in Heilongjiang Province since 2016 (of 1765 with a page). Number 17 in China in 2017, of 272.

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
4,212ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
18 Oct 2017 – 30 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
18 Oct
2017
Danger at start
4
Very low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

18°high
47km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.5 mm on 7 Nov.

This area had burned before

35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,495 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Boli County where it started
    4,207 ha
    0.9 %

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 9.7 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
19 Oct 12.7 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
20 Oct 12.9 °C 43 % 32 km/h 1.0 mm Very low 2
21 Oct 7.8 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
22 Oct 4.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
23 Oct 7.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
24 Oct 12.8 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
25 Oct 11.9 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
26 Oct 12.8 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
27 Oct 14.4 °C 37 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
28 Oct 18.5 °C 40 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
29 Oct 5.3 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
30 Oct 6.0 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
31 Oct after 10.0 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
1 Nov after 9.0 °C 24 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
2 Nov after 5.0 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
3 Nov after 0.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
4 Nov after 1.5 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
5 Nov after 11.3 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
6 Nov after 12.1 °C 48 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
7 Nov after 5.5 °C 82 % 20 km/h 4.5 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Oct 2017
After · 6 Nov 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.

Other fires nearby

All fires in China ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Boli County fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 October 2017 and 30 October 2017: 13 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 4,212 hectares (42.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Boli County (4,207 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 18.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 47 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.