Burned area
satellite only1,611ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 17 Apr 2020 – 17 Apr 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
CN · China ·
Dongshan District fire, April 2020 东山区 · Dongshan District
Out · last measured on 17 Apr 2020
The fire started on 17 April 2020 in Dongshan District, China, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,611 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 386th largest in Heilongjiang Province since 2016 (of 943 with a page). Number 142 in China in 2020, of 313.
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 only1day
17 Apr 2020 to 17 Apr 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 17 Apr 2020 – 17 Apr 2020
+− 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 only17 Apr 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 17 Apr 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Danger at the start
model15.2FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 8.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 17 Apr 2020, 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
model16.6°C · 21% RH
High of 16.6 °C and minimum humidity of 21% on 17 April 2020; gusts of 24 km/h on 17 April 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 17 Apr 2020 – 17 Apr 2020
- 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.
Living inside
model≈ 70people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 1.2 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
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 GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
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
- 1,611 ha
- Dates
- 17 Apr 2020 – 17 Apr 2020
- Name
- Dongshan District
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/dongshan-district-2020-04?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 dongshan-district-2020-04.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-04-17 | 0 | 0 | 16.6 | -1.1 | 21 | 10.1 | 23.8 | 0 | 15.2 | moderado | 1 |
| 2020-04-18 | 0 | 0 | 19.6 | 1.1 | 18 | 10 | 19.8 | 0 | 13.4 | moderado | 0 |
| 2020-04-19 | 0 | 0 | 20.3 | 2.3 | 24 | 20.6 | 42.1 | 0 | 25.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-04-20 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 4.3 | 43 | 21.7 | 42.5 | 8.8 | 3.5 | 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: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
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
- 1,611ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 17 Apr 2020 – 17 Apr 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 17 Apr
- 2020
- Danger at start
- 15
- Moderate · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
17°high
24km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity
It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.8 mm on 20 Apr.
This area had burned before
52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 834 ha in 2017.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Beijing (Dongcheng and Xicheng) boundary: geoBoundaries · Lee Beryman, OpenStreetMap · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
1,598 ha0.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area1.2 ha
Residents≈ 70
Inside the perimeter there were about 1.2 hectares of built-up land and about 70 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Apr | 16.6 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 18 Apr after | 19.6 °C | 18 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 19 Apr after | 20.3 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 20 Apr after | 13.0 °C | 43 % | 42 km/h | 8.8 mm | Very low 4 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 15.2, a minimum humidity of 21% and 8 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 28.
FWI at the start
15.2
Minimum humidity
21 %
Days without rain
8
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Dongshan District fire, April 2020
1,611 ha
1 day
FWI 15.2
Min. humidity 21 %
Dongshan District fire, April 2024
1,270 ha
1 day
FWI 13.2
Min. humidity 21 %
22 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.6 mm on 18 Apr.
Dongshan District fire, October 2017
1,895 ha
5 days
FWI 16.4
Min. humidity 23 %
3 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.4 mm on 20 Oct.
Baoqing County fire, October 2021
1,442 ha
2 days
FWI 15.7
Min. humidity 20 %
171 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 27 Oct.
Arkharinsky District fire, April 2018
11,039 ha
4 days
FWI 15.6
Min. humidity 21 %
209 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 8.5 mm on 11 Apr.
Jixian County fire, October 2017
1,443 ha
5 days
FWI 14.5
Min. humidity 22 %
86 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 20 Oct.
What happened to them
- 3 days
- median duration
- 1,442 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 1.8 mm
- rain at the end (median; 27 of 28 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (1,611 ha against a median of 1,442 ha) and lasted 1 day, against 3 days.
In 1 of 28, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.8 mm.
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
8.8 mmfirst rain
20 Apr3 days after it ended
24km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 17 Apr, and on 20 Apr 8.8 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 27 of 28, with a median of 1.8 mm.
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 · 10 Apr 2020
After · 24 Apr 2020
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.
Other fires nearby
- 9,743 haDongshan District 东山区22 October 2026 · 12 days · 8 km away
- 8,942 haTangyuan County 汤原县23 October 2026 · 9 days · 21 km away
- 3,526 haTangyuan County 汤原县November 2025 · 1 day · 30 km away
- 2,062 haLuobei County 萝北县23 October 2026 · 3 days · 37 km away
- 4,987 haHuachuan County 桦川县14 October 2026 · 4 days · 38 km away
- 3,067 haTangyuan County 汤原县16 April 2025 · 2 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dongshan District fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 April 2020 and 17 April 2020: 1 day 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 1,611 hectares (16.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dongshan District (1,598 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 16.6 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 24 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 28. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 1,442 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 1 of 28, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.8 mm.
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 · 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: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.