Heqing County fire, January 2017 Heqing County
The fire started on 21 January 2017 in Heqing County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,330 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 184th largest in Yunnan Province since 2016 (of 380 with a page). Number 163 in China in 2017, of 272.
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
- 1,330ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 21 Jan 2017 – 24 Jan 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 21 Jan
- 2017
- Danger at start
- 21
- High · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 3 Feb.
This area had burned before
0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Heqing County where it started1,333 ha0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jan | 21.8 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 22 Jan | 22.3 °C | 14 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 23 Jan | 22.0 °C | 13 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 24 Jan | 22.1 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 25 Jan after | 23.0 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 26 Jan after | 23.4 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 27 Jan after | 21.5 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Jan after | 21.3 °C | 20 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 29 Jan after | 19.9 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 30 Jan after | 20.0 °C | 22 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 31 Jan after | 18.1 °C | 32 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 1 Feb after | 20.2 °C | 21 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 2 Feb after | 20.0 °C | 19 % | 60 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 23 |
| 3 Feb after | 19.3 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 1.3 mm | Low 10 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Heqing County fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 January 2017 and 24 January 2017: 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 1,330 hectares (13.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Heqing County (1,333 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 22.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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
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.