Burned area
satellite only387ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 26 January 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
IE · Ireland · –
Conamara South LEA-5 fire, 3 May 2017 Conamara South LEA-5
Out · last detection 4 May 2017, 02:46 UTC
The fire started on 3 May 2017 in Conamara South LEA-5, Ireland, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 387 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 6th largest in Connacht since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 4 in Ireland in 2017, of 9.
The power measured by the satellite is low (12.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only2days
3 May 2017 to 4 May 2017: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 4 May 2017, 02:46 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only3 May 2017
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 3 May 2017
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only15
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 12 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 3 May 2017 – 4 May 2017
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only62MW
Total radiative power on 3 May 2017; hotspots that day: 8.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 3 May 2017
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model13.7FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 3.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 3 May 2017, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model16.9°C · 38% RH
High of 16.9 °C and minimum humidity of 38% on 3 May 2017; gusts of 60 km/h on 4 May 2017.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 3 May 2017 – 4 May 2017
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed perimeterEFFIS (Copernicus) revises the perimeter
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 387 ha
- Dates
- 3 May 2017 – 4 May 2017
- Name
- Conamara South LEA-5
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/conamara-south-lea-5-2017-05?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire conamara-south-lea-5-2017-05.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-05-03 | 8 | 62 | 16.9 | 7.4 | 38 | 20.2 | 43.9 | 0 | 13.7 | moderado | 1 |
| 2017-05-04 | 7 | 11 | 16.3 | 7.3 | 40 | 28.1 | 60.5 | 0 | 19 | moderado | 1 |
| 2017-05-05 | 0 | 0 | 16.5 | 7.3 | 41 | 34.6 | 72.4 | 0 | 26 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-05-06 | 0 | 0 | 14.2 | 7.5 | 57 | 25.3 | 55.1 | 0 | 16.7 | moderado | 0 |
| 2017-05-07 | 0 | 0 | 18.5 | 6.2 | 45 | 10.2 | 28.4 | 0 | 8 | bajo | 0 |
| 2017-05-08 | 0 | 0 | 20.5 | 5.3 | 47 | 14.2 | 29.5 | 0 | 10.1 | bajo | 0 |
| 2017-05-09 | 0 | 0 | 17.4 | 5.3 | 51 | 14.5 | 29.9 | 0 | 10 | bajo | 0 |
| 2017-05-10 | 0 | 0 | 15.5 | 5.2 | 57 | 11.3 | 31.3 | 0 | 11.6 | moderado | 0 |
| 2017-05-11 | 0 | 0 | 16.7 | 6.2 | 49 | 16.1 | 37.8 | 0 | 8.7 | bajo | 0 |
| 2017-05-12 | 0 | 0 | 15.3 | 10.1 | 61 | 16.2 | 35.3 | 0.4 | 9.4 | bajo | 0 |
| 2017-05-13 | 0 | 0 | 13.9 | 9.2 | 69 | 25.3 | 55.8 | 5.5 | 1.8 | muy_bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 387ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 3 May 2017 – 4 May 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local electoral areas
- Started on
- 3 May
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 15
- in a single hotspot: 12 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 36MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
3 May4 May
4 May 2017
How it evolved, day by day
3 May
4 May
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
17°high
60km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.5 mm on 13 May.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Conamara South LEA-5 where it started386 ha reached on 3 May0.7 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Other natural land87 %
- Other land cover13 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 May | 16.9 °C | 38 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 4 May | 16.3 °C | 40 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 May after | 16.5 °C | 41 % | 72 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 6 May after | 14.2 °C | 57 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 7 May after | 18.5 °C | 45 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 8 May after | 20.5 °C | 47 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 9 May after | 17.4 °C | 51 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 10 May after | 15.5 °C | 57 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 11 May after | 16.7 °C | 49 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 12 May after | 15.3 °C | 61 % | 35 km/h | 0.4 mm | Low 9 |
| 13 May after | 13.9 °C | 69 % | 56 km/h | 5.5 mm | Very low 2 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 13.7, a minimum humidity of 38% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 10.
FWI at the start
13.7
Minimum humidity
38 %
Days without rain
3
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Conamara South LEA-5 fire, 3 May 2017
387 ha
2 days
FWI 13.7
Min. humidity 38 %
Swinford LEA-4 fire, May 2020
122 ha
4 days
FWI 17.0
Min. humidity 40 %
105 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.9 mm on 5 Jun.
Loughrea LEA-5 fire, May 2020
367 ha
4 days
FWI 18.9
Min. humidity 36 %
93 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 5 Jun.
Wicklow LEA-6 fire, June 2018
250 ha
3 days
FWI 18.7
Min. humidity 39 %
226 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Trim LEA-6 fire, June 2018
121 ha
9 days
FWI 21.7
Min. humidity 37 %
186 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.1 mm on 15 Jul.
Fermanagh and Omagh fire, April 2019
190 ha
1 day
FWI 7.7
Min. humidity 42 %
191 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 23 Apr.
What happened to them
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 10. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
5.5 mmfirst rain
13 May9 days after it ended
60km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 4 May, and on 13 May 5.5 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 26 Apr 2017
After · 11 May 2017
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · CopernicusOn 3 May 2017 the air beside the fire reached 17 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak17 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1024 µg/m³
WHO 15
1 May3 May5 May7 May
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)
Detections table · 15Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV
Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 453 haConamara South LEA-5April 2025 · 3 days · 1 km away
- 614 haConamara North LEA-412 May 2016 · 2 days · 15 km away
- 191 haConamara North LEA-4April 2026 · 1 day · 17 km away
- 133 haConamara North LEA-412 May 2016 · 1 day · 18 km away
- 3,865 haConamara South LEA-57 May 2017 · 4 days · 21 km away
- 270 haConamara North LEA-4April 2016 · 1 day · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Conamara South LEA-5 fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 3 May 2017 and 4 May 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 387 hectares (3.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Conamara South LEA-5 (386 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 16.9 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ireland (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: 999 · 112 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 15 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Where this data comes from
The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. 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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.