Skip to content
worldfires
MG · Madagascar · →

Ihosy fire, September 2017 Ihosy

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2017, 21:57 UTC

The fire started on 11 September 2017 in Ihosy, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,466 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the largest fire in Ihorombe since 2016 (of 14 with a page). Number 6 in Madagascar in 2017, of 57.

Burnt area
7,466ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
11 Sept 2017 – 18 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
11 Sept
2017
Heat detections
261
in a single hotspot: 123 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Sept18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

111213141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
38km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Ihosy where it started
    7,512 ha reached on 11 Sept
    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)
11 Sept 28.3 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Sept 29.2 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Sept 30.1 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Sept 31.0 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Sept 28.7 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Sept 30.1 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Sept 30.2 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept 29.4 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Sept after 30.1 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Sept after 29.8 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Sept after 27.8 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Sept after 26.0 °C 35 % 52 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 45
23 Sept after 27.3 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Sept after 27.6 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.5 mm High 34
25 Sept after 28.9 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Sept after 29.3 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Sept after 28.5 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
28 Sept after 30.0 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Sept 2017
After · 25 Sept 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 · 261Every 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 Ihosy fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 September 2017 and 18 September 2017: 8 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 7,466 hectares (74.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ihosy (7,512 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very high.
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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.