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Boli County fire, 26 February 2019 Boli County

Out · last measured on 28 Feb 2019

The fire started on 26 February 2019 in Boli County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,082 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1553th largest in Heilongjiang Province since 2016 (of 1765 with a page). Number 183 in China in 2019, of 215.

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
1,082ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
26 Feb 2019 – 28 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
26 Feb
2019
Danger at start
6
Low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

7°high
45km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 394 ha in 2016, 511 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 663 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Boli County where it started
    1,080 ha
    0.2 %

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)
26 Feb 0.4 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
27 Feb 4.2 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
28 Feb 7.4 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
1 Mar after 5.0 °C 24 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
2 Mar after 8.8 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
3 Mar after 7.8 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
4 Mar after 9.0 °C 22 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
5 Mar after 7.9 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
6 Mar after 2.6 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
7 Mar after 5.0 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
8 Mar after 11.0 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
9 Mar after 6.3 °C 20 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
10 Mar after 7.6 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Feb 2019
After · 7 Mar 2019

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 26 February 2019 and 28 February 2019: 3 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 1,082 hectares (10.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Boli County (1,080 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 7.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, class Low.
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.