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Fenerive Est fire, November 2017 Soanierana Ivongo, Fenerive Est

Out · last detection 13 Nov 2017, 10:15 UTC

The fire started on 8 November 2017 in Fenerive Est, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,794 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Analanjirofo since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 27 in Madagascar in 2017, of 57.

Burnt area
2,794ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
8 Nov 2017 – 13 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
8 Nov
2017
Heat detections
94
in a single hotspot: 173 MW
Danger at start
0
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Nov13 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

8101213

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

30°high
38km/h · peak gust
40%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.1 mm on 14 Nov.

This area had burned before

28% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 775 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Soanierana Ivongo
    1,609 ha reached on 8 Nov
    0.4 %
  2. Fenerive Est where it started
    1,200 ha reached on 7 Nov
    0.4 %

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)
8 Nov 27.5 °C 58 % 33 km/h 16.1 mm Very low 0
9 Nov 29.1 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
10 Nov 30.3 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
11 Nov 29.7 °C 49 % 34 km/h 4.7 mm Very low 0
12 Nov 26.5 °C 74 % 33 km/h 12.2 mm Very low 0
13 Nov 24.2 °C 76 % 31 km/h 9.5 mm Very low 0
14 Nov after 24.4 °C 73 % 34 km/h 7.1 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Nov 2017
After · 20 Nov 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 94Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Madagascar ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Fenerive Est fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 November 2017 and 13 November 2017: 6 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 2,794 hectares (27.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Soanierana Ivongo (1,609 ha, 0.4 %); Fenerive Est (1,200 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 5, class Very low.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Madagascar (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.

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.

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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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.