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Cona County fire, March 2024 China

Out · last measured on 16 Mar 2024

The fire started on 13 March 2024 in Cona County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,890 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 11th largest in Tibet Autonomous Region since 2016 (of 31 with a page). Number 68 in China in 2024, of 254.

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
1,890ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
13 Mar 2024 – 16 Mar 2024
Municipalities hit
0
counties
Started on
13 Mar
2024
Danger at start
0
Very low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

22°high
46km/h · peak gust
40%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 23.4 mm on 20 Mar.

This area had burned before

85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,576 ha in 2017, 1,186 ha in 2019, 2 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,613 ha that had burned before.

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)
13 Mar 18.8 °C 62 % 44 km/h 4.2 mm Very low 0
14 Mar 19.8 °C 54 % 44 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 0
15 Mar 22.4 °C 40 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
16 Mar 20.8 °C 50 % 44 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 1
17 Mar after 21.5 °C 48 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 4
18 Mar after 21.6 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm Low 5
19 Mar after 22.4 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
20 Mar after 15.4 °C 77 % 31 km/h 23.4 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Mar 2024
After · 23 Mar 2024

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 13 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 50 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak50 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM1083 µg/m³
Optical depth1.13
111213141516171819
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in China ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cona County fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 March 2024 and 16 March 2024: 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 1,890 hectares (18.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 22.4 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 2, 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.