Skip to content
worldfires
CN · China · →

Cona County fire, December 2018 China

Out · last measured on 3 Jan 2019

The fire started on 31 December 2018 in Cona County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,204 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 23th largest in Tibet Autonomous Region since 2016 (of 31 with a page). Number 34 in China in 2018, of 54.

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
1,204ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
31 Dec 2018 – 3 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
0
counties
Started on
31 Dec
2018
Danger at start
3
Very low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

18°high
36km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

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)
31 Dec 17.5 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
1 Jan 17.0 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
2 Jan 16.0 °C 58 % 35 km/h 1.1 mm Very low 1
3 Jan 14.1 °C 57 % 36 km/h 0.8 mm Very low 1
4 Jan after 15.4 °C 52 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
5 Jan after 17.7 °C 51 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
6 Jan after 18.5 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
7 Jan after 18.6 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
8 Jan after 16.8 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm Low 7
9 Jan after 14.7 °C 46 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm Low 7
10 Jan after 15.8 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
11 Jan after 15.9 °C 58 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
12 Jan after 18.5 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
13 Jan after 19.3 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Dec 2018
After · 10 Jan 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 Cona County fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 December 2018 and 3 January 2019: 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 1,204 hectares (12.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 17.5 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 4, class Very 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.