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Horinger fire, March 2016 Horinger, Tumed Left Banner

Out · last detection 13 Mar 2016, 06:05 UTC

The fire started on 7 March 2016 in Horinger, China, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,216 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 94th largest in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region since 2016 (of 370 with a page). Number 32 in China in 2016, of 180.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,216ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
7 Mar 2016 – 12 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
7 Mar
2016
Heat detections
83
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
5
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
386MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Mar12 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

78910111213

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

The weather it burned in

15°high
47km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 22 Mar.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Horinger where it started
    1,672 ha
    0.5 %
  2. Tumed Left Banner
    550 ha
    0.2 %

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)
1 Mar 9.1 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
2 Mar 12.9 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
3 Mar 15.2 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
4 Mar 5.2 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
5 Mar 3.7 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
6 Mar 5.8 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
7 Mar 1.7 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
8 Mar -1.4 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
9 Mar -2.8 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
10 Mar 0.6 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
11 Mar 2.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
12 Mar 4.8 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
13 Mar after 6.3 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
14 Mar after 8.6 °C 11 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
15 Mar after 12.6 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
16 Mar after 14.4 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
17 Mar after 15.9 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
18 Mar after 17.0 °C 16 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
19 Mar after 16.2 °C 20 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
20 Mar after 17.7 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
21 Mar after 13.8 °C 39 % 18 km/h 0.6 mm Low 8
22 Mar after 10.4 °C 28 % 39 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Feb 2016
After · 19 Mar 2016

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 · 83Every 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 China ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Horinger fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 March 2016 and 12 March 2016: 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 2,216 hectares (22.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Horinger (1,672 ha, 0.5 %); Tumed Left Banner (550 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 15.2 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, 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.

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.

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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.