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Ergun fire, June 2024 Ergun

Out · last measured on 8 Jul 2024

The fire started on 29 June 2024 in Ergun, China, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,289 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 241th largest in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region since 2016 (of 370 with a page). Number 138 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
1,289ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
29 Jun 2024 – 8 Jul 2024
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
29 Jun
2024
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
42km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 13 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Ergun where it started
    1,324 ha
    0.0 %

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)
29 Jun 24.0 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
30 Jun 25.4 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
1 Jul 30.7 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Jul 32.5 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Jul 33.3 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Jul 32.1 °C 35 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
5 Jul 31.5 °C 37 % 18 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
6 Jul 25.4 °C 54 % 42 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 19
7 Jul 28.3 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 Jul 30.0 °C 20 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Jul after 29.6 °C 30 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Jul after 26.8 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
11 Jul after 24.9 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
12 Jul after 27.7 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
13 Jul after 26.5 °C 43 % 34 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jun 2024
After · 15 Jul 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 4 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 401 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 275: 18 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak401 µg/m³
Days over the guideline15 days
PM10577 µg/m³
Optical depth5.22
272829301234567891011
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)

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ergun fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 June 2024 and 8 July 2024: 10 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 1,289 hectares (12.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ergun (1,324 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
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.